Dispute over party membership

The parliamentary leadership of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians announced that party co-founder and former first president Marius Lulea is no longer a member. AUR Senate group leader Petrișor Peiu stated on 6 October 2026 at Parliament that General Secretariat records showed Lulea had not paid membership dues for over a year, triggering an automatic statutory expulsion. Senator Cristina Dumitrescu stated that failure to pay dues terminates membership automatically without any obligation to send prior formal notice. First Vice-President Dan Dungaciu confirmed Lulea's exclusion following consultations with Nicușor Dan at the Cotroceni Palace. Party President George Simion published a video on TikTok stating that internal discipline is required and that those who criticize the leadership no longer belong to the organization.

“To my knowledge, he is not even an AUR member anymore.”

Bank records and leadership challenge

Lulea denied the non-payment accusations and posted a bank transfer receipt on Facebook indicating membership dues paid for the years 2026, 2027, and 2028. He called on Simion and Dungaciu to provide equivalent public proof showing their own monthly fee payments for the current year. Lulea emphasized that he served as the party's initial president, signed candidate lists during its first parliamentary entrance, and previously employed Simion at his engineering firm, Ideal Proiect Architecture & Engineering SRL. When contacted for clarification, Dungaciu dismissed the conflict, stating that the administrative assessment was final and that party leadership did not consider the matter an active topic. Lulea stated that freedom of expression remains protected under the political parties law and should not be curtailed.

Opposition to Călin Georgescu negotiation strategy

The confrontation deepened on 7 October 2026 when Lulea publicly attacked Simion for linking government coalition negotiations to the legal status of Călin Georgescu. AUR leaders had sought to condition votes on a new cabinet and demands for early elections on securing the release of the detained former presidential candidate. Lulea argued that conditioning political votes on judicial outcomes compromises the legal process and encourages courts to resist perceived partisan interference. He asserted that any legal resolution must rest solely on statutory law, factual evidence, and judicial independence rather than public political pressure.

“Imposing the release of Mr Călin Georgescu as a political condition actually does him more harm. In practice, it is an invitation to the justice system not to yield to political pressure.”

Ideological divisions within the party

The expulsion follows widening political differences over the party's ideological direction. In September 2026, Lulea argued in an interview that AUR should abandon populist rhetoric and reposition itself as a center-right political party to offer administrative solutions. While Lulea agreed with party criticism that the earlier annulment of the presidential vote was unlawful and that the justice system faces credibility issues, he rejected using judicial cases for electoral gain. He maintained that pushing for early elections or voting against a cabinet are standard political strategies, but exploiting a family's judicial difficulties crosses into political cynicism.

“Political capitalization on the situation and suffering of Mr Călin Georgescu represents a form of political cynicism.”