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"Regardless of the result of the European parliamentary elections, I want to run in the local elections as well," says Renew MEP Ramona Strugariu, co-chair of REPER, adding that the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) combining the elections to the European Parliament with the local elections "is a fundamental mistake and will seriously shake public confidence that politics can still be reformed in Romania."
"I am running for the European Parliament because I think it is important to enter the battle with the strongest group you have in the party, and not only in the party, so that you can give the best possible result in the elections. But I said very clearly that, regardless of the result of the European Parliament elections, I want to run in the local elections as well," she said at a meeting with Romanian journalists at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, told Agerpres.
"We are also open to the idea of political alliances or political collaborations. I'm not just talking about the European Parliament elections, I'm talking about all the elections in Romania. Moreover, you can see very well that the USL [Social Liberal Union] is combining. And I want to emphasise USL, because it is no longer a governing coalition that was brought together under the influence of harsh times and the needs of the moment. We are talking about a team that is making a common front at this moment, on the same model that we have seen before, and and forge a political strategy for the elections, for all the election. That's what combining means, in fact, at this moment."
According to the MEP, combining the elections, which she called a political pact of the PSD with PNL, "is a fundamental mistake and will seriously shake public confidence that politics can be reformed in Romania."
"If, individually, the two parties have given weak signals here and there of reform and have appointed some more serious, let's say, more solid people locally, strategically, such a political movement is an extremely stupid signal. The fear is also, I tell you, that the people, seeing these things, will not mobilise to vote. Hence the strategy, obviously, of pushing the masses into some elections that they will not know anything about (...) will not understand what they are voting for and for whom. But it seems that this is less important and it is more important to save some offices and, individually, some political figures, than for Romania to have alternatives."
