PNL's Orban about USR-PLUS presidential candidate: They had better not fielded candidate

National Liberal Party (PNL) Chairman Ludovic Orban said on Tuesday that "it would have been better" if the USR-PLUS Alliance [formed by USR - Save Romania Union, PLUS - Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party] did not nominate a candidate for the presidential election, explaining that this splits the votes in the fight against the Social Democratic Party (PSD, major at rule). 

"It is their right to field a candidate, but it would have been better if they didn't, because in the fight against the PSD this virtually splits the non-PSD or anti-PSD electorate. It creates multiple opportunities. (..) What can we tell them if they said head on: we are nominating a candidate? It's democracy, any formation can submit a candidate," Orban told TVR1 public broadcaster. 

The PNL leader has stated that the Liberals' political opponent remains PSD, which has well-established local structures. 

"PSD still has, even if it got 22.5 percent in these elections, an electorate of about 23-24 percent. It has dropped because, if you remember, PSD won the election by 46.5 percent and in January, February, March, had very high scores, because it received the victory bonus and was at about fifty something percent. Today it has dropped to less than half. Our political opponent is PSD and the majority coalition PSD-ALDE [Alliance of Liberals and Democrats , minor at rule, ed.n.]. I am not the person to say that PSD is done, PSD is down. PSD is not only represented by the national leaders it has, the PSD has a local administration structure with almost 1,700 mayors, it still has the power, it has has the government, it controls the administration and that needs to be treated with the utmost seriousness, and we are preparing a strategy to fight the PSD, because you cannot fight the others," Orban said. 

He brought to mind that according to polls, the best positioned Social Democrat candidate is Gabriela Vranceanu Firea. 

"Anyone who has had access to sociological research knows that today, among PSD leaders, Gabriela Vranceanu Firea is in the best position. It's a known fact. (...) I have worked with three polling companies and I did not release the results because we do not conduct polls to manipulate public opinion. Most polling companies that have released the polls, with the exception of the INSCOP, have provided some results that have nothing to do with the political reality at the European Parliament elections," Orban further said. 

According to him, the voters' intent for President Klaus Iohannis stands at over 40 percent whereas Gabriela Vranceanu Firea enjoys a confidence of around 35 percent.