Greater Romania Party (PRM) leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor formally joined the presidential race yesterday, in an event scheduled at the Odeon Theater of Bucharest, but which eventually was held in the street.
The PRM members were barred access in the building, so they held the ceremony in front of the theater. Thus, PRM President Corneliu Vadim Tudor yesterday launched his candidacy in the presidential elections on the steps before Odeon, with some 300 fans wearing banners, flags and red-yellow-blue balloons, as well as caricatures of Traian Basescu, Mediafax reports.
In his speech, he launched a violent attack against President Traian Basescu, whom he accused of forcing Odeon manager Dorina Lazar to cancel the reservation of PRM.
The PRM president said it was Basescu who gave this order to Adriean Videanu who, in his turn, asked Dorina Lazar – installed as Odeon manager when Traian Basescu was the mayor of Bucharest – to cancel the hall reservation for Vadim Tudor’s launching festivity.
Sources from the Bucharest Municipality said PRM did not request an authorization to hold the meeting in front of Odeon, which made it an illegal rally.
Vadim added that, initially, he planned to launch his candidacy at the Romanian Opera, but he had to renounce following the intervention of Culture minister Teodor Paleologu.
In a different move, PNL leader Crin Antonescu on Saturday registered his presidential candidacy with the Central Electoral Bureau (BCE), which also accepted the electoral sign of the Liberal candidate – an arrow pointing right, in a square, with the PNL logo beneath. Antonescu had previously submitted his lists of signatures for presidency with BEC on Friday morning, as he gathered 1,615,556 signatures supporting his run. He was accompanied at BEC by personalities belonging to the party and by his wife, Adina Valean.
“I want a Romania ruled by common sense, by the respect for the citizen, (a country) escaping the economic, institutional and moral crisis that caught the Romanians in its grip now. I will give you a strong and competent government, enjoying respect at home and abroad, and supported by a majority in Parliament, as provided by the Constitution,” the PNL president said. The president of PNG, George Becali submitted his candidacy at BEC also on Saturday. He urged the voters who will attend the November 22 ballot not to vote once again for “the devil.” In support of his run, he brought lists with 256,646 signatures, and was accompanied at BEC by some 20 fans. Asked whom will he give his votes to, if he won’t make it to the second round, Becali said he will ask his supporters to vote for “the other one, who will oppose the tyrant.”
Also Saturday, PSD President Mircea Geoana declared in Brasov that he will formally register his candidacy for the Romanian presidency on October 22. The Social-Democrat leader is unimpressed by other candidates entering the race before him.
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