Social Democratic Party leader: If we win the elections, Iohannis and Ciolos will pay

Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the biggest party in Romania, which is leading the polls before the Parliamentary elections in December, said yesterday evening that if his party wins the elections, the ones responsible for the mistakes of the last year will need to “pay”. He said that this included President Klaus Iohannis, current Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, and his ministers, reports local Hotnews.ro. Dragnea said that Ciolos and the Culture Minister needed to pay for the “large fraud” around the public fundraising campaign for Cumintenia Pamantului (Wisdom of the Earth) sculpture by Constantin Brancusi. The PSD leader also said that the wish of the liberal-democrat leader Calin Popescu Tariceanu to become a prime minister would be justified only if his party ALDE won the elections. Dragnea added that he was not being ironic. At the beginning of this year, the two parties signed an agreement to collaborate for these parliamentary elections, but ALDE announced yesterday that it supports its leader Tariceanu as the future prime minister. Dragnea has his own ambitions for a PM office. However, President Klaus Iohannis said that he would not validate a prime minister with a criminal record. Both Dragnea and Tariceanu have faced corruption charges and the PSD leader even has a probation conviction for electoral fraud. editor@romania-insider.com