Romanian opposition alliance explores presidential, mayoral candidate options
Either Dacian Cioloş, the president of the opposition party PLUS, or USR leader Dan Barna would run on behalf of the USR-PLUS alliance in this year’s presidential elections, Agerpres reported.The alliance decided to come up with a presidential candidate after scoring a significant win in the recent EU Parliament elections.
“One of us with surely run. We will form a team, under any format,” Cioloş said in a TV interview, when asked if he or Barna would run.
Cioloş said that the good result the alliance scored in the EU Parliament elections justifies having a presidential candidate.
“We had over 22% at the recent elections. We are one of the three main political forces of the country. Do you see any argument to not have a candidate, given that we are one of the main political forces in the country? How could we explain not having a candidate when we had this result? This is normal. It has nothing to do with the bids of other parties. Each party has the right to present a candidate. We will talk about our political program during the campaign,” Cioloş said.
Meanwhile, Dan Barna said he would undertake a presidential bid, if USR and PLUS decide this is the option to take but would also support Cioloş, Mediafax reported.
“These are decisions I will take together with my colleagues. There are several important nuances. To me, the personal project is to have USR established as a consistent party, one that will live long-term. To me the stake is to have this structure I invested my time in be worth it. If we decide that the best option is Dacian Cioloş, I will support it,” Barna said at the televised Marius Tuca Show.
Barna also said the two parties could opt for a president – PM duo to present.
“We are considering a duo. One party would offer the presidential candidate, the other the PM candidate […] We are two teams discussing, led by Dacian and me. In the end, undertaking a presidential bid is profoundly personal, but this is what we did today, we wrote down the pluses and minuses. Nobody made a straight-out request for a presidential bid. We are analyzing everyone’s pluses and minuses,” Barna said.
At the same time, Barna did not rule out having a candidate for the Bucharest City Hall together with the National Liberal Party (PNL). He said it was important to rid Bucharest of Gabriela Firea, Hotnews.ro reported.
He also said that MP Nicușor Dan, a former USR president, could be the party’s candidate for the Bucharest mayor job.
“If Nicușor Dan finds himself in the best spot in the electorate’s preference, he could be the USR candidate. Beyond the personal, individual preferences, the stake is much more important. From this perspective, if you support someone with the highest chances, the city will be much better, And to me, this is enough,” Barna said.
