Ciolos to renounce mandate in 2023 if elected party chairman: It will be a good time to make an assessment

USR PLUS Co-chairman Dacian Ciolos announced that if he is elected the party's leader, he will renounce his mandate in 2023, for validation before 2024, in which both presidential and parliamentary elections will take place, agerpres reports.

Asked if he supports a change in the statute, so that the chair is elected for only two years, Ciolos confirmed.

"Anyway, if I win the party's chairmanship, I will renounce my mandate in 2023, because I believe that before the 2024 elections, which are very important, it will be a good time to make an assessment of how the party has worked, what we have managed to do until then, and the party's leadership - at least the chair - if I win the party's chairmanship, be validated by a vote, even before the elections. (...) If we do not change the statute by then ... We will now have, at the congress, a discussion about the modification of the statute", Ciolos said during a press conference held at the USR PLUS headquarters.

At the same time, he reiterated his intention not to run for the presidency of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, in case he wins the USR PLUS leadership.

Ciolos expressed his hope that after the internal elections, regardless of the result, USR PLUS "will come out consolidated", and by 2024 to gain experience and maturity to prove that it can be 'a main governing party'.

"Let us prepare so that in the coming months, in the coming years, we can deliver as much as possible from we promised in the election campaign. And, obviously, let us prepare so that in 2024 we will be a party that is able to put on the table a government program in which people can believe and gain also the experience and maturity to show that we can be a major governing party," he said.

USR PLUS co-chairs Dacian Ciolos and Dan Barna are in the second round of the party leadership elections. Following the first round, Dacian Ciolos obtained 15,111 votes (46%), Dan Barna received 14,404 votes (43.9%), Irineu Darau has 3,300 votes (10.1%).

Out of 44,114 voting members, 32,815 (74.4%) voted.

The members of USR PLUS had the opportunity to express during the last week, through online voting, the option regarding the new chair of the party resulting from the merger between USR and PLUS. The result of the online election is to be validated by the USR PLUS congress, which will take place on the weekend of October 2-3, at Romexpo, in Bucharest.