Romanian Senate head Tariceanu enters presidential race, warns of breaking ruling agreement

One day after Romania’s ruling coalition’s senior party, the Social Democrat Party (PSD), nominated prime minister Viorica Dancila to run in the presidential elections, Senate head Calin Popescu Tariceanu, the leader of the junior ruling partner ALDE, declared he felt betrayed and disappointed and decided to enter the presidential campaign himself.

He invoked a poll indicating that 59% of the voters of his party (ALDE) want a joint ALDE-PSD candidate and over 80% of them support him as the coalition’s candidate.

ALDE failed to meet the 5% threshold in the elections for the European Parliament, though, while PSD received some 25% of the votes.

In his speech as a presidential candidate, Tariceanu criticized PSD for the weak ambition (entering the second ballot) and stressed that he aims to win the elections, Hotnews.ro reported.

“It was not a surprise, but a disappointment and will probably generate problems within the ruling coalition,” Tariceanu stated about Dancila’s presidential candidacy. He added that he personally wants to maintain the coalition as it is now, but some members of his party mentioned the scenario of pulling out of the coalition “unless the balance of power in the coalition improves.”

Specifically, some ministers questioned the budget revision prepared by PSD finance minister Eugen Teodorovici for the end of July and warned that they would not endorse it since they do not fully understand it, Tariceanu added, hinting to what his colleagues might have meant by “the balance of power”.

(Photo: Calin Popescu Tariceanu Facebook Page)