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Senator Ion Popa is the pick of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) for the position of Senate president, the formation's leader Calin Popescu-Tariceanu announced on Tuesday.
At the end of the meeting of ALDE's Central Political Bureau, Tariceanu said that the ALDE leading body had decided by "a crushing majority" that all the persons who accept public office in the government, Parliament or other institutions, without the party's support or assent, shall be stripped of membership.
ALDE pulled out of the ruling coalition on August 26, and the formation's leader Calin Popescu-Tariceanu resigned on Monday as president of the Senate. Also on Monday, Social Democrat Chair Viorica Dancila said that her party could claim the top Senate position, but proposed ALDE Senator Teodor Melescanu instead, because the position had been assigned to ALDE and the Social Democrats wanted to show that they are "correct to the end". Melescanu said on Tuesday that he hopes to get the necessary votes for being elected Senate president, and that if he succeeds, he will be perfectly impartial.
