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Former president Traian Basescu told private broadcaster Digi24 Tuesday evening that a joint candidate for the presidential elections from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) - National Liberal Party (PNL) would mean the dissolution of one of the two parties.
"It would mean the dissolution of a party, let's see which of the two would prefer to disband, because we are talking about PNL, which is the largest right-wing party, let's say, and PSD which is the largest left-wing party. If one of them doesn't have a candidate, they can go to the Permanent Electoral Authority and write 'disbanded' in the register. This cannot be. You can't even negotiate the president. First of all, it is dishonourable for the two big parties to reach such a barter 'let's negotiate a president'. Then why on earth do we go to the polls?" the former president asked rhetorically.
He added that the leaders of the two parties, Marcel Ciolacu and Nicolae Ciuca, are not qualified and do not have the profile to become president of the country.
"Neither is qualified, but that's what we can say about any president before he becomes president, because there is no school of presidents. (...) I was not qualified either. If I were a party leader, I would not nominate any of them. Mr General (Ciuca, ed. n.) does not yet have and probably will not have the profile of a politician. The position of president is for politicians, not generals. If we give him a battalion, a brigade, a division, he will probably know what to do with it. With a country it's harder, a country that doesn't follow orders, but you have to convince it to go in a certain direction," Basescu said.
He said that as far as Marcel Ciolacu is concerned he is surprised "that the press is so nice that they don't show him from time to time pictures of Omar Hayssam (a Syrian-born Romanian financier who was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison after a Romanian court found him guilty of masterminding the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005, according to Wikipedia.) when they were great friends, they used to go hunting in Buzau (County, ed. n.)".
"Sure, there's a lot to discuss here. I don't think any of them fit the profile of the president and we'll see what comes out. At the Cotroceni [presidential palace] we also need people who have the courage to innovate. I don't see Ciuca innovating," commented Basescu.
The former president also said that (currently NATO deputy secgen, ed. n.) Mircea Geoana "is not a solution" for the presidential elections.
