Local NGO scans the Romanian candidates with best chances of winning seats in the EP

Local civic movement Initiativa Romania launched on May 19 a new online tool the voters can use to get all the information they need about the Romanian candidates with high chances of representing Romania in the European Parliament (EP) after the May 26 elections. The website is called romania-alege.ro and provides detailed information about the eligible candidates and their electoral programmes, about the parties they represent, as well as information about the voters’ rights and the EP’s role.

Amid this launch, Initiativa Romania also warned that 38 eligible Romanian candidates with problems of integrity, opponents of the rule of law or of the European values want to reach the European Parliament.

Initiativa Romania analyzed a total of 75 eligible candidates, namely 15 candidates from the senior ruling party PSD (the Social Democratic Party), 15 from the main opposition party PNL (the National Liberal Party), 12 candidates from the newly formed 2020 USR PLUS Alliance, 8 candidates from junior ruling party ALDE (the Alliance of Democrats and Liberals), 6 from PRO Romania and 6 from People's Movement Party (PMP), 4 candidates from the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania, and one each from several other parties, as well as independent candidates.

The NGO then made a risk assessment based on integrity information for each of the candidates (for example criminal issues, incompatibilities, conflicts of interest or other serious facts), but also looked at their attitude towards the rule of law (for example if they had legislative initiatives to amputate the judicial power or to decriminalize criminal acts in the interests of the party) and their attitude towards the European values (statements and initiatives, actions against human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, human rights).

The statistical results of this analysis revealed that 14 of the 15 eligible PSD candidates are in at least one of these situations: they have public integrity issues, have taken actions/made statements against the rule of law or against European values, Initiativa Romania announced. Meanwhile, 7 of the 8 eligible candidates representing ALDE are in the same situation, as well as 5 of the 15 PNL candidates. The results also showed that 1 of the 12 eligible candidates of the 2020 USR PLUS Alliance made statements against the European values. Moreover, 2 of the 3 independent candidates made statements and had initiatives that contravene European values.

“Romania Alege PE19 (romania-alege.ro) means over 500 hours of research work, mostly carried out voluntarily, by members and collaborators of Initiativa Romania (a project team of 15 people). The site will be further developed and we will launch new functionality in the coming week. The project is developed with financial support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom,” Initiativa Romania said.