The Romanian state must do more to explain what happened during last year's presidential election and the reaction of state institutions to attempts to impinge on their integrity and legality, with the consequence that the equal chances of the candidates were affected, interim Chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Minister of the Interior Catalin Predoiu said on Saturday.
"The new Washington administration is planning a fast transformation of the architecture of international relations and the security environment. In the face of these dynamic changes, Romania must adjust quickly and build a solid and proactive position," he said, as cited in a release, Agerpres.
The Liberal leader emphasizes that "internal stability is essential for finding the best ways to represent and defend our interests, while remaining anchored in our Euro-Atlantic partnerships, as a EU and NATO member country."
"Safeguarding and preserving democratic values and strengthening democracy represent the guarantee of citizens' freedom. The PNL has embraced these values ever since its founding and has not abandoned them despite the years of communism and atheism Romania has gone through with historical costs. It is no coincidence that 10 years ago, the PNL joined the European People's Party, a party that embraces the same values," the minister pointed out.
In a plea for free and fair elections, Predoiu said that he "is convinced that our formal and informal diplomacy will find the best means to successfully develop this clarification process. Our interest is for us to hold a free, fair, honest, legal and transparent ballot. It is important to protect democracy from any form of threat, hate speech and violence. Also, the PNL will continue to support strengthening Romania's defense capacity, an important guarantee of our security."
The PNL interim leader underlined the importance of the U.S.-Romania projects: "In parallel with our development projects based on European funding, it is important to identify projects that can be mutually advantageous for the U.S. and Romania, as we discussed at the meeting last year in Washington with Senator Marco Rubio, incumbent Secretary of State, respectively for the development of the Strategic Partnership with the U.S.," said Predoiu.
Addressing on Friday the Munich Security Conference, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance took a swipe at European governments for what he described as their censorship of free speech and their political opponents, specifically targeting the cancellation of Romania's presidential election by the country's top court after accusations of Russian meddling, which the U.S. VP dismissed as "ugly Soviet-era words," Reuters reports.
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