After supporting Elena Lasconi in the presidential elections in November, the president of the Right Force, Ludovic Orban, has a new favorite candidate.
„I’m telling you now, in case I don’t run, I have someone to support, Nicușor Dan. I think he has the profile of a candidate, given the current background, who could win the elections and provide a satisfactory answer for many people who are tired of PSD and PNL, of partyocracy, corruption, nepotism, politicization of all institutions, and who want something else.
It could be a solution to motivate people to come out and vote for a candidate like Nicușor Dan. I am not a member of USR and USR needs to think very carefully. I believe that the best solution is for the democratic center-right formations, which truly support the values at the core of democracies, to support a candidate, as it is a very dangerous situation," Orban stated to Euronews.
"He is a modest man who does his job"
On the other hand, he appreciates him for his modesty: "Nicușor Dan is a man with whom I have serious affinities in public thinking. He is a modest man who does his job, a man who rejects all underground mechanisms of exercising power, a man who did not play anyone's game, who completed his first term and has now started his second term aiming to achieve public interest objectives that he declared during the electoral campaign."
The former PNL leader also explained why he stopped supporting Elena Lasconi: because Nicușor Dan is better prepared.
Orban mentioned that he supported her only because "she was the only candidate from the democratic area who had a chance in the second round."
"The elections were canceled because of Georgescu, not because of her"
"I didn't praise her, I didn't try to find qualities where there were none. We all know that Lasconi had a lot of work to do to prepare for this role, a fact acknowledged by everyone. Not even today.
And this statement, that the elections were canceled so she wouldn't win, let's be serious! You need to have common sense in politics, even if sometimes you make statements that may not be entirely in line with reality, you need to have the sense not to defy evidence and reality. It's partially true what Elena Lasconi says. The elections were canceled because of Georgescu, not because of her."
Furthermore, the leader of the Right Force believes that not even USR voters would support her if they had to choose between her and Nicușor Dan. On the other hand, Nicușor Dan would even be supported by the PNL electorate.
"I don't know how Antonescu can trust PSD, as he has already been let down by PSD"
Regarding the coalition's candidate, Orban only has criticisms for his former party colleague, Crin Antonescu, and recalls the "letdown" that PSD has already given him.
"The biggest mistake that the leaders of the parties in power could make is to designate a candidate from the current coalition. That person is a loser from the start, no matter what his name is.
Antonescu is forced to run, but even if he will eventually be supported, he won't be genuinely supported, and if PSD doesn't have its own candidate, the PSD activists will not mobilize to support the candidate. But what happened to Antonescu with PSD? Have you forgotten?
Mr. Antonescu convinced PNL - not me, because I was the only one who voted against this sinister political idiocy of uniting the right with the left - telling his colleagues that he would be president and that, with the support of PSD, he would become president.
Ponta became prime minister, but Antonescu did not become president, except for one month, during the period when he replaced the suspended Băsescu and during the referendum in July. Otherwise, he did not become president because PSD let him down.
Ponta wanted to run for president, and that's why the governing coalition broke up in February 2014. So I don't know how Antonescu can trust PSD, as he has already been let down by PSD.
If you are a rational thinker, a candidate of the current governing coalition - as he is presented, a candidate of the governing coalition - he has no chance, understand? No chance. It doesn't matter who he faces in the second round. In the second round, he will be crushed with a score of 70 to 30 percent, mark my words. A candidate who carries the stigma - guaranteed by Ciolacu, guaranteed by Iohannis, guaranteed by Bolojan - has no chance."