Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu on Tuesday said that the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and he, as the PSD national leader, will never suggest supporting a PSD-backed independent running in the presidential election in Romania.
Ciolacu reacted to a statement made by Mircea Geoana, NATO's deputy secretary general and one time PSD national leader, that PSD, including Ciolacu, paid him a visit and proposed that he runs as a PSD-backed independent in this year's presidential election.
"I'm not going to propose... I am the national leader of the Social Democratic Party. I don't know whether or not I will be a candidate for president. At this point, I'll tell you in all honesty that I didn't even think about being a candidate. What I can tell you with certainty, with the heart of a PSD party member, this time, as a founding member for 30 years, is that never PSD of I personally will suggest, nor will it occur to me, to support a PSD-backed independent presidential candidate," said Ciolacu.
He was also asked if he asked Geoana to run on behalf of PSD in the presidential election.
"After I asked Mr Mircea Geoana, I left and called Mrs Geoana and proposed her to be prime minister," Marcel Ciolacu said caustically.
Ciolacu made the statement as he left for an ordinary session of the General Assembly of the Association of Romania's Small Towns.
Geoana on Monday evening told Digi 24 private broadcaster that PSD proposed that he runs as a PSD-backed independent in the presidential election.
"I've had talks with them, they came to my office, including Marcel Ciolacu, to propose that I run as an independent backed by PSD for a very simple calculation, because PSD votes in the presidential election, where four million more come than usual, are not enough to win the Romanian Presidency. If you want to win strictly with PSD, the votes are not there. In the runoff, almost no one votes for PSD, the diaspora does not, the undecided do not, it's a limitation. For a 35-40% voter turnout, PSD's score is very important. For the presidential elections, where there is 65% participation, Romanians mobilise and go to vote. There are not enough votes. It's up to them to decide what they want to do, and it's up to me to decide what I want to do," Mircea Geoana said.
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