Almost 24 hours after Crin Antonescu’s announcement regarding his „suspension” as the coalition’s candidate for the presidential elections in Romania, the first reaction came from Elena Lasconi, the leader of USR and a potential contender in the presidential race.
She says that Antonescu is nothing more than „a puppet in a power retention game,” and the new situation shows that „last month’s negotiations were just a charade, the stake of which was the preservation of privileges.”
"A month after canceling the elections, not only did they not explain with solid evidence why they did that, but they also did not even provide a new election calendar and have no idea whom to nominate to avoid disrupting their closed-door games," emphasizes the USR leader.
Here is the full post from Elena Lasconi's Facebook:
"Crin Antonescu's announcement shows that Romania is led by old politicians with small stakes, who now don't know how to get out of the situation after engaging in all sorts of dubious combinations.
What combinations? Well, as Mr. Simonis said, including the votes for Simion. And that's just one example. While they boasted on TV that they are responsible, that they care about the fate of Romanians, at the negotiating table, they kept trying to pressure me into signing that I will no longer run as a candidate.
I know I've really upset them, and I hope that all of us, people of good faith, will upset them even more in the coming months.
Marcel Ciolacu (Romanian PM) and his protector, Klaus Iohannis (Romanian President), have been playing with Romania's democracy for some time. Mr. Crin Antonescu's statement only reinforces what I've been saying from the beginning: it wasn't Romania's interest, stability, or the pro-European path of our country that were at stake in last December's negotiations to form a governing coalition, but the preservation of their privileges.
With all due respect to Mr. Antonescu, he is nothing more than a puppet in a power retention game. They are afraid of democracy, completely overwhelmed by governance. They are completely detached from reality, from the needs of the citizens who pay increasing taxes and bear all the price hikes.
The fight against corruption remains just a slogan, the promised hospitals are still only on paper, and cleaning up the public sector is postponed, once again.
A month after canceling the elections, not only did they not explain with solid evidence why they did that, but they also did not even provide a new election calendar and have no idea whom to nominate to avoid disrupting their closed-door games.
Perhaps now everyone can understand that last month's negotiations were just a charade. That PSD and PNL have made it clear that they do not want to do anything good for Romania and that you cannot rely on their word."
Crin Antonescu announced on Saturday evening, during a show on Digi24, that he is unilaterally suspending his candidacy on behalf of the coalition for the 2025 presidential elections.
"I declare this agreement suspended, and consequently, my candidacy. I do not hesitate, I do not step back, I am willing, but I believe we must be honorable and serious people," said Antonescu.
Later, on Sunday, Ilie Bolojan assured that, from the perspective of the National Liberal Party, Antonescu remains the coalition's candidate for the 2025 presidential elections.
The PNL leader stated that Antonescu is right when he says that the electoral calendar needs to be expedited to have the two rounds before Easter (April 20).
Kelemen Hunor, in turn, announced that a coalition meeting should take place in the middle of next week (considering that Monday and Tuesday - January 6 and 7 - are still holidays).
There should be some haste to avoid giving the impression that someone wants to postpone the elections.