Adrian Nastase announced on Monday at the end of the Permanent National Bureau meeting that both the representation criteria and the number of delegates at the Congress will be established at the end of bilateral talks that Liviu Dragnea, the party’s secretary general, is expected to hold with party branch leaders. The talks could take place this week.

According to Nastase, some party branch leaders are not satisfied with the number of delegates and with the selection criteria, asking for the latter to include the results registered in the first round of Presidential elections, those registered in the runoff or the ones registered in the latest elections in general. Nastase stated that from this point of view the most important thing is the absence of ‘backstage games’ ahead of the party elections scheduled next week. ‘I want there to be no backstage games; I want there to be no need to set up an inquiry commission on the way the voting took place. I consider that we have the necessary maturity in order to avoid harboring suspicions and fueling such ideas at party and public opinion levels, ideas according to which some party branch presidents exert pressures on some delegates or pick the delegates in a less democratic manner,’ Nastase stated.

In fact, Nastase wrote yesterday in an entry on his blog that he is worried by ‘the maneuvers’ that could be made during the Congress by those that want to postpone change within the party. In his opinion, PSD has the chance to take the best possible decision through the votes of its most representative members instead of proving the versatility of backstage games. ‘Those games could elect a certain leader, an easy to manipulate one, but they would probably be incapable of electing the best leader for the party’s future. I too am worried about the maneuvers that could be made by those that want to postpone change within the party,’ Nastase added.

Pandele attacks Vanghelie

Florentin Pandele, the mayor of Voluntari, received a one-year suspension from PSD yesterday.

The decision was taken by PSD Ilfov, a branch coordinated by Marian Vanghelie, leader of PSD Bucharest and exotic mayor of District 5. The suspension comes on the heels of the personal conflict that the two mayors had during last week’s National Council meeting. Vanghelie tried yesterday to put on an innocent face, qualifying the decision taken by the Ilfov branch he coordinates as being ‘rash and wrong.’ Subsequently however he launched himself in personal attacks that were answered in kind by the mayor of Voluntari.

Thus, Pandele stated that the mayor of District 5 carries ‘hoodlum politics’ and that he is a ‘millstone’ for Mircea Geoana and PSD. ‘Mircea Geoana makes use of this character’s hoodlum politics. I will back whoever runs against Mircea Geoana and Marian Vanghelie. Marian Vanghelie is a millstone for Mircea Geoana and PSD. Geoana does not have enough political sense to get rid of Vanghelie,’ Florentin Pandele stated for Antena 3.

However, the real stake of this row seems to be the number of delegates that Vanghelie, who openly stated his support for Mircea Geoana, can bring to the Congress.

According to Pandele, that number surpasses 200 since Vanghelie is not only the president of PSD Bucharest but also the coordinator of the party’s Giurgiu and Ilfov branches. Sources from within PSD have stated yesterday for Mediafax that one of the problems debated during yesterday’s Permanent National Bureau meeting concerned the number of delegates that PSD Bucharest will have considering that it is the party’s largest branch and that is has six District branches.

The aforementioned sources have pointed out there are branch leaders and candidates dissatisfied with the fact that PSD Bucharest has a far too high number of delegates to the Congress. Vanghelie replied: ‘I don’t believe it is important how many delegates I or other branch leaders have. If someone imagines one comes with the delegates in his pocket and pulls them out one by one in order for them to vote and that someone keeps an eye on how they vote, they are wrong. Those are fairytales,’ Vanghelie said.