Who's in the race for Romania's presidential seat?

Eight Romanian politicians have already submitted their candidacies for the presidential elections in early November and thus officially entered the race for Romania’s presidency, hoping to run the country for the next five years. One of them will replace the current President Traian Basescu, who's now at the end of his second mandate. Most of these candidates have previously talked about their intentions and have been campaigning, unofficially, for some months now. The only surprise came from Teodor Melescanu, the chief of Romania’s Foreign Intelligence Service SIE, who announced his resignation from this position on Monday and filed his candidacy for president on the next day. September 23 is the last day when presidential candidates can still submit candidacies to the Central Electoral Bureau. We will update this list with new names. Victor Ponta The first to file his candidacy was current Prime Minister Victor Ponta. He’s also considered the favorite to win the presidential elections, as he is supported by the ruling coalition, made of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the National Union for Romania’s Progress (UNPR) and the Conservative Party (PC). Ponta has been running Romania’s Government since May 2012, and is also the president of the PSD. Ponta, 42, officially launched his candidacy on September 20, on his birthday, in a grand event organized on the National Arena stadium in Bucharest, which was attended by some 70,000 people. This triggered comments from Ponta’s opponents, who compared this event with those held before in the communist era for former president Nicolae Ceausescu, on the same arena. “At 42, I feel ready to become the president of all Romanians,” Ponta said in his speech. He renewed his call for people to join him on the way to the great union of all Romanians, saying that he wants to be president in 2018, when Romania will celebrate 100 years from the Great Union of 1918. “I want us to discover something that has been lost in Romania: I want us to trust each other, to trust that we are Romanians and that we are proud of this,” he said. His campaign motto is: “Proud to be Romanians!” Klaus Iohannis Liberal leader Klaus Iohannis was the second to officially file his candidacy. The 55-year old politician of German origin has been serving as mayor of Sibiu, one of Romania’s most developed cities since 2000. In June this year he became president of the National Liberal Party (PNL). In the presidential elections he is supported by the Cristian Liberal Alliance (ACL) which consists of PNL and PDL (Democrat Liberal Party). Klaus Iohannis submitted some 2.2 million signatures from people who support his candidacy. His message for Romanians was that he will speak less and do more. “I am less a man of words and more a man of deeds. I run for a different way of making politics in our country. Less show, less noise and more solutions for the people, for Romania,” he said. He added that there are no hidden interest groups behind him and no media trusts, only ACL and the 2.2 million Romanians who signed for him. Iohannis' target is to make it to the second round of the elections, where he expects to win against Victor Ponta.