Marcel Ciolacu: "The presidential elections will be organized in September, as decided in the coalition"

The presidential elections will be organized in September, as established four months ago by the governing coalition, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the PSD president, said at Sâmbăta de Sus, Friday, who rejected any renegotiation of the electoral calendar stating that "the trick stops at the gate of the Victoria Palace".

Marcel Ciolacu stated: "It is obvious that the presidential elections are in September, as we decided in the coalition and as it is fair to all parties. You know that I set a condition: I did not accept the merger of local and MEPs until we had the full election calendar. The decision was made then within the coalition with the PSD: the election calendar is the one announced before the merger, with the presidential elections in September (ed. - September 8 first round and September 22 second round). (...) I can no longer look any Romanian party leader in the eyes if I came as prime minister to say that I am changing the date of the September elections. I made it clear that I will not announce the merger of the elections if I do not have a clear and assumed calendar in the coalition. If we want to go trickery, the trickery stops at the gate of Victoria Palace. The Romanian government is the Romanian government. If you want respect from Romanians, you have to keep your word. I was clear. I'm prime minister. I do not go back on my word to all parties and especially to democracy. That's right. I said that I don't announce the merger until I have the calendar of all the elections validated in the coalition. There is no changing the calendar based on what the polls tell us. The government will resist because we have a political agreement. If we break the political agreements, we start to lose exactly what we gained through this gentleman's agreement respected by me and Mr. Ciucă for the first time in Romania. I am convinced that we will both respect the agreement".

The president of the PSD announced that, according to the decision of the National Political Council on Friday, the social democrats will have a candidate for the position of president of the country, even if it will be a joint candidate with the PNL or their own candidate. Marcel Ciolacu let it be understood that the future PSD candidate could even be one of the young social-democratic leaders, if the analysis of the June 9 elections will show that, of the one million young people who had the right to vote for the first time , most of them participated in the local and European parliamentary elections.

The president of the PSD showed: "There is another signal sent by the Romanians. I'm looking at Simonis (ed. - Alfred Simonis, the new president of the Timiş County Council), Şoldan (ed. - Gheorghe Şoldan, the new president of the Suceava County Council), Rareş Hopincă (ed. - the new mayor of Sector 2 Bucharest) - I see young candidates. I try to explain that the world is changing. We have a million young people who came to vote for the first time. I do not remain a prisoner of a circle. In politics you have to see the changes and the wishes of the electorate. If I look at the profile of the winners, I don't see the profile of the past, on the contrary. Don't make me speak for certain people. If we do not take these things into account, we will lose the election, as in the last four presidential elections. I think that after 20 years in which the president of the country was from the right, with the results we know, it is time to have a president from the left".

Asked by the journalists present at the scene, if he excludes the option that Mircea Geoană, deputy general secretary of NATO, will be supported by the PSD for the presidential elections in September, Marcel Ciolacu stated: "I think that first of all I should have a discussion with Mircea Geoană. And not alone, but together with my colleagues".

The PSD will nominate its candidate for the presidential elections in September at the Congress in early July.