The Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Conservatives pledged to refuse from the start any possible collaboration with the president and the Liberal Democrats, whom the public mostly blame for the tough austerity measures taken in 2010. Pundits say the Social Democrats and the Liberals didn’t really have a choice given the negative track record of their collaboration with the Liberal Democrats.

The collapse of the confidence ratings of the president and the Liberal Democrats in opinion polls doesn’t anyway make them appealing to any of the parties in the Social Liberal Union, which, according to the latest polls, holds more than 50% of the voting intentions. The recent congress reconfirmed the two co-chairmen of the Union, the Social Democrat Victor Ponta and the Liberal Crin Antonescu, as a tandem, should the Union win the legislative elections this autumn and the presidential elections in 2014.

Thus, Ponta is to become prime minister, while Antonescu is the Union’s candidate for president. The congress also approved the names of the people running for the Union in the June elections. After negotiations described by the press as “sluggish”, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Conservatives eventually worked out the list of the Union’s candidates for county council president and county seat mayor.

Things are also very clear with regard to the candidate for Bucharest mayor. The Social Liberal Union will back the incumbent mayor Sorin Oprescu, a former Social Democrat turned independent, for a new term in office as an independent. After this first congress, the Social Liberal Union, whose MPs are currently boycotting the parliament’s meetings and who are engaged in a tough struggle with the ruling coalition, which they have repeatedly accused of abuse, seems prepared for the 2012 election year. It remains to be seen if the results match their expectations.