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
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.
Monica Macovei
When filing her candidacy she said she had two gifts for the main candidates: “a popcorn bag for the young Ceausescu from the Victoria Palace (Victor Ponta – e.n.) to eat while watching me carefully” and a “a mirror for Iohannis, to look at himself and think about how can he become president without saying anything”, she said.
Calin Popescu Tariceanu
“I think that Romania needs more, needs a country project, an ambitious project to take it where it belongs,” said Tariceanu, whose political program is called “Romania, Europe's seventh power”. He said he expects to get 20% of the votes in the first round, which would be enough to take him to the second round.
Elena Udrea
She said that she has no secrets. “You have known me for 10 years, with the good and the bad. There’s almost nothing in my life that is not known to everyone, to you, to the press. I have nothing to hide. And I think that Romania finally has the chance to elect a president that has no ties with the communist past and who isn’t an undercover agent,” she said.
Kelemen Hunor
Kelemen Hunor also run for president in 2009, when he came fifth, with 3.8% of the votes.
Dan Diaconescu
Diaconescu founded a political party, the People’s Party – Dan Diaconescu (PP-DD), which came third in the 2012 elections for Romania’s Parliament. He also won the public auction for the privatization of Romania’s largest chemical plant Oltchim, in September 2012, but failed to pay the pledged amount. His TV station OTV was shut down by Romania’s audiovisual regulator CNA, in January 2013.
Diaconescu, 46, said that he’s most likely to win the presidential elections and that he bases his belief on statistics. “I am the only candidate whose name end in <<escu>>, and statistics never got it wrong. Since 1974, all of Romania’s presidents had names that ended in <<escu>>. Although, in the final tour of the elections there have been people whose name didn’t end in <<escu>> who were very well positioned in the polls, something happened every time and they lost to the candidates whose names ended in <<escu>>,” Diaconescu explained.
He also said that he gathered one million signatures from Romanians who support his candidacy, but only filed 300,000 of them.
Teodor Melescanu
He is supported by the Social Fairness Party but also by some organizations of the retirees from the Army. He gathered 400,000 signatures for his candidacy. “I make this step with a lot of confidence. It is a maturity step after a life dedicated to my country,” Melescanu said. He added that he will represent all of Romania’s citizens.
- to be updated as soon as new official candidates submit their candidacies -
editor@romania-insider.com