Romania’s former tennis legend Ilie Nastase and former top footballer Anghel Iordanescu will run in the upcoming European Parliament elections on the list of local party UNPR.

UNPR president Gabriel Oprea announced the two names on Saturday, March 2, local News.ro reported.

“We are very honored to have two Romanian patriots on our list for the European Parliament elections, as they are among the best ambassadors of our country, supporting and promoting tirelessly Romania’s image abroad. This is the kind of people we need to represent the country all over the world, not those who forgot they are Romanians and did nothing but denigrate our country after having been sent by Romanians to the European Parliament,” Oprea said.

The UNPR president hopes his party will get 10% of votes at next year’s local and parliamentary elections.

Ilie Nastase was one of the world’s tennis stars in the 1970s, ranked world No.1 for almost a year between August 1973 and June 1974. He won seven Grand Slam titles and was included in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2011. Meanwhile, Anghel Iordanescu was one of Romania’s best footballers. He is a former manager of the Romanian national team and one of local team Steaua Bucuresti’s greatest players. He retired from football in 2007.

Former interior minister Gabriel Oprea, the current president of UNPR, was sent to court in May 2018. He was prosecuted for manslaughter after a police officer died in a motorcycle accident while escorting Oprea’s official car in 2015.

newsroom@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Shutterstock)