Former Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, who left the National Liberal Party PNL two weeks ago, was recently elected head of the country's Senate, thus replacing his former party colleague Crin Antonescu, also the head of PNL, who resigned last week.

Tariceanu's candidacy for the helm of the Senate got 93 votes, twice the number of votes received by the PNL candidate, and five times more than the votes for the candidate from the Democrat Liberal Party PDL. The vote session was organized on Monday, and was secret, with vote bulletins.

Tariceanu this replaced his former party collague Antonescu, now his political enemy, after Tariceanu was supported in running for the Senate seat by the ruling coalition the Social Democrat Union USD. Antonescu had parted ways with former alliance allies the Social Democratic Party PSD, which is central to the USD alliance.

Both Tariceanu and Antonescu said they plan to run for the country's presidency at the end of this year, when the current presidential mandate ends.

As head of the country's Senate, Tariceanu holds the second most powerful position in the state, and gets to be the president – interim should Basescu be unable to perform his duties.

Crin Antonescu was the interim president for one month in 2012 when president Basescu was impeached and awaiting a referendum.

More about Antonescu's recent resignation from the Senate, here.

editor@romania-insider.com