Acting PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu believes that two of the mistakes made by the Social Democrats, which have contributed to their drop in opinion polls, were placing too much trust in their National Liberal Party (PNL) partners during last year's elections and failing to hold sufficient discussions with Victor Ponta to dissuade him from running in the presidential election.
Grindeanu was asked on Sunday, by private broadcaster Antena 3, how PSD had come to register a score of below 20% in the opinion polls.
"There are many causes. No matter how well or poorly PSD has governed - even though we haven't been in power as long as PNL - from 2012 to 2025, in 13 years, PSD has governed for about 10 or 11 years, while PNL has had around 11 or 12, slightly more than us. All these things are visible, they have an impact. Even if you built the most motorway kilometres, increased pensions and salaries, or did what needed to be done in Romania, the wear and tear of governing, if I may put it that way, is something that shows up in the polls," the acting PSD president explained.
He added that there had also been political mistakes.
"Last year, we placed too much trust in the word of those from PNL. We believed that when we agreed to run on joint lists - as we did for the European elections, even though we weren't very keen on it, and everyone was asking why we were saving' them - we were honouring our coalition commitments. We also agreed on an election calendar, on the timing of the parliamentary elections, and on having a single joint candidate, the one who was leading in the polls. These things were settled within the coalition. That was a big mistake, because once they changed their minds and failed to respect our agreement, it triggered a six-month period - from the European elections until the presidential and parliamentary ones - in which both PSD and PNL lost a great deal. There were endless accusations, some justified, others not; it no longer mattered. It was six months of political circus that benefited no one. A huge mistake made by both PSD and PNL. If we're talking about more recent times, because historically there have been many PSD mistakes, I think PSD should have held more discussions with Victor Ponta to persuade him not to run," Grindeanu said.
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