USR's Barna: On short term, until local elections,the merger of USR with PLUS is unlikely

Chairman of the Save Romania Union (USR) Dan Barna has stated on Wednesday that, on short term, the party's merger with the Liberty, Unity, Solidarity Party (PLUS) is unlikely, the goal being to strengthen the USR PLUS Alliance in view of the local elections.

"On Friday, we will have a meeting of the Joint Bureaus in which we will set out the next steps to continue the alliance and the most useful perspectives, because the stake is represented by these elections, whose result matters very much," Barna stated, when asked at a news conference about the stage of the discussion regarding a merger of the USR with PLUS.

He mentioned that the USR PLUS Alliance has been created in order to give a long-term "credible" governance perspective in Romania.

In his view, the USR PLUS Alliance is stronger after the result of the presidential elections and after the result of the internal vote regarding his support at the helm of the USR.

He also said that he is "aligned" with Dacian Ciolos on the idea that the two parties - USR and PLUS - have only the option of a collaboration and "an alliance which can give and maintain hope in the next period."