According to the latest survey conducted by AtlasIntel, the favourites for the presidential elections would be Mircea Geoană, Diana Șoșoacă and Laura Codruța Kovesi – none of whom is backed by the major political parties, which have not appointed yet their candidates.

A year before the elections expected at the end of 2024, no high-profile candidates have been announced, and the largest party (the Social Democrats) has not yet confirmed the very likely candidacy of their leader, Marcel Ciolacu.

The candidates preferred by the voters, without being asked to opt from among a specific list, are Mircea Geoană, Diana Șoșoacă and Laura Codruța Kovesi, followed by Marcel Ciolacu, George Simion, Cătălin Drulă and Eduard Hellvig, according to AtlasIntel, quoted by Digi24.

While Mircea Geoană has been highly active in his role as a future presidential candidate and Laura Codruța Kovesi is constantly mentioned as a potential candidate, some candidates reportedly indicated by the polled voters (such as Eduard Hellvig) are rather unexpected. 

Former Social Democrat (no longer) candidate, currently NATO deputy secretary general Mircea Geoană, would get the highest score (20.4%, without party), followed not very closely by radical and highly vocal lawmaker Diana Șoșoacă (13.3%, SOS Romania) and former anticorruption prosecutor Laura Codruța Kovesi (10.9%, without party).

Other candidates indicated by voters are the radical leader George Simion (7.7%, AUR), USR leader Cătălin Drulă (6.9%, USR) and Eduard Hellvig (6.4%, former head of the intelligence services SRI, without party).

iulian@romania-insider.com

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