BUCHAREST — Romania's rulers are flirting with Euroskepticism.

While proclaiming themselves to be committed Europeans, leaders of the governing Social Democrats (PSD) have been bashing Brussels like never before in the run-up to May's European Parliament election.

The Euroskeptic rhetoric has highlighted a schism among leading Romanian politicians, with some PSD veterans defecting to a new party founded by former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, which presents itself as unambiguously pro-EU.

The PSD's direction under party chief Liviu Dragnea is important not just for Romania. The party, which helped negotiate Romania's accession to the EU, could also change the political balance within the EU, if Bucharest joins the ranks of hard-line critics of EU institutions, such as Budapest and Warsaw.

The PSD's blunt rejection of criticism from Brussels over the rule of law and corruption has also created tensions inside the Party of European Socialists (PES), the alliance of center-left parties from across the Continent. The PSD is forecast to be the joint third-largest national delegation in the center-left bloc in the next European Parliament.

“The party today is not what I dreamt of" — Corina Creţu, European commissioner for regional policy on the PSD

Signs of a rift within the PSD have been bubbling for months. They culminated with the decision in January of Corina Creţu, the European commissioner for regional policy, to quit the PSD after almost 30 years and run for a seat in the European Parliament as a member of ex-PM Ponta's Pro Romania party.

“Of course it’s not easy for me,” Creţu told POLITICO. “The party today is not what I dreamt of and doesn’t correspond to my European values.”

PSD members have repeatedly attacked Creţu in recent years, accusing her of working against the interests of her own country when she pointed out Romania’s poor use of EU funds. Creţu said she is tired of “all these personal attacks.”

Pro Romania founder Ponta, who was expelled from the PSD in 2017, is positioning his party as Romania’s only real pro-European Social Democratic choice. “The PSD unfortunately has turned to a very populist, very nationalistic, demagogic party,” he said.

Creţu's decision to join Pro Romania was followed by that of a number of high-level politicians, including former Prime Minister Mihai Tudose and other members of parliament, senators and ex-ministers. Members of Romania's liberal ALDE party, currently in coalition with the PSD, have also joined Pro Romania.

PSD loyalists have suggested the defectors over-reacted.

“Of course when people with a certain seniority leave, it’s not a pleasure — at the same time it’s also hard to understand them,” said Șerban Nicolae, the PSD leader in the Senate.

Nicolae compared being a member of a party to living in a house, and said there is no reason to leave because of minor problems.

“It’s hard for me to believe that if someone smears the walls or breaks the windows I will look for another house,” he said. Nicolae also dismissed claims that the PSD is pushing back against EU values, calling it a "propaganda story."

Growing criticism

Romania, which holds the rotating EU presidency, has faced growing criticism from the European Commission and the European Parliament in recent months, reflecting a view in Brussels that the Eastern European country is backsliding in the fight against corruption and heading down the same illiberal path as Poland and Hungary.

Critics, both at home and abroad, accuse the PSD of trying to push through legal changes to weaken the independence of the judiciary and help politicians accused of corruption, including senior PSD officials such as Dragnea.

More recently, the PSD government has embarked on an international lobbying campaign against one of its own nationals, former anti-corruption chief Laura Codruța Kövesi, to prevent her from getting the job of top EU prosecutor.

The PSD’s troubles reflect a deeper power struggle between Dragnea, who cannot become prime minister due to a suspended jail sentence but is seen as the de facto government leader, and a number of frustrated PSD members worried he’s taking the country on an anti-EU path meant to serve his own interests.

"Those who want to be part of our family need to stick to the rule of law" — Udo Bullmann, S&D Group leader

Ponta said the PSD “has been confiscated by leaders that see politics as a way of becoming richer and not to be punished by the law."

European Socialist leaders confronted Dragnea at the European Socialists' congress in Madrid at the end of February, including over reports that Romanian authorities launched an investigation into European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans — who is the center-left lead candidate in the EU election but has also been a critic of Bucharest's record on rule of law.

“There was no lack of clarity from our side that those who want to be part of our family need to stick to the rule of law,” said Udo Bullmann, leader of the center-left group in the European Parliament.

Zig-zagging

In recent months, Dragnea has zig-zagged between embracing the EU and the PES, and distancing himself from them.

In December, he stayed away from a PES congress in Lisbon.

“I will never be in the same photo with people who hurt my country,” he told a PSD conference later that month, amid a chorus of applause. “I understand we are part of a political family that doesn’t want to help us — they can at least listen to us.”

After attending the next PES congress in Madrid, Dragnea said he is a "convinced pro-European."

He repeated that line a few days later, but added: "We wanted to join the EU for a better life, for more freedom, not to go back to fear and terror." He said that "it's not possible that everything we say, everything we do, gets criticized, hit and blocked and what others say, which means a whole set of lies, is taken for granted."

PSD Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă struck a similar note in an interview with POLITICO last month. She accused Western European leaders of double standards in criticizing her country over corruption and a crackdown on anti-government protests.

Other PSD politicians have targeted European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. In February, PSD MP Liviu Pleşoianu said Juncker is "an impostor," and it is embarrassing for the EU that he has the Commission's top job.

Nationalist rhetoric often comes also from party Secretary-General Codrin Ştefănescu, a Dragnea loyalist who was a member of the far-right Greater Romania Party before joining PSD in 2011.

Victor Negrescu, a PSD member and former European affairs minister, suggested the divisions within the party are more about personal differences than EU policy.

"I tend to believe we do not have a party as a whole acting anti-European but we have some politicians who exploit this rhetoric and some who use this topic to demonize the other parties," he said.

Negrescu resigned abruptly from his ministerial job in November but hopes to be on the PSD's list of MEPs.

Election headache

Whether the divisions are primarily personal or political, they spell trouble for the PSD in the European Parliament election. The party is on course to win about 26 percent of the Romanian vote in the election, according to POLITICO's projections. Last time, the PSD-led list won more than 37 percent.

Ponta's Pro Romania, meanwhile, has come from nowhere to be on track to win nearly 10 percent of the vote.

Ponta’s critics say the Pro Romania leader is no better than his former colleagues, pointing out he had to battle his own corruption charges a few years ago and was also accused of plagiarizing his Ph.D. thesis.

Dragnea declared this month that the PSD "will take care of" former members who joined Pro Romania and suggested the new party is full of masons and former members of communist-era secret police.

PSD and Pro Romania could find themselves as awkward bedfellows in the next European Parliament.

Dragnea's course has prompted speculation the PSD could join a Euroskeptic bloc in the next Parliament. Romanian media reported last month that Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy's right-wing populist League, recently sent a letter of praise to the PSD leadership.

However, it would be a big risk for the PSD to join such an alliance, since the PSD's electorate at home is largely pro-EU. In Romania, 52 percent of the population has a positive view of the EU — one of the highest scores in the bloc, according to a Eurobarometer survey published in December.

That leaves the prospect that both the PSD and Pro Romania could find themselves together as awkward bedfellows in the same center-left bloc in the European Parliament after May's election.

While European Socialist leaders have criticized Dragnea and the PSD, they have made no move to exclude the party from their ranks.