Some filed candidacies for two offices at once, to make sure they get a position in party’s central bureau.
Yesterday was the last day when Democrat-Liberals could file their candidacy for the party’s leadership positions. The battle for the four senior deputy president offices, one secretary general position, fifteen deputy president ones, six executive secretary offices, three deputy secretary positions and a treasurer one is bound to be a tough one, with plenty of negotiations, arguments and dissatisfactions.
The most coveted offices are the four senior deputy president ones, as six competitors are running for them, according to adevarul.ro: Gheorghe Flutur, Sorin Frunzaverde, Teodor Baconschi, Roberta Anastase, Constantin Ostaficiuc and Mircea Toader. Some of them already have a fall-back option, in case they shouldn’t qualify for the senior deputy president position, namely, Baconschi, Ostaficiuc and Mircea Toader. Three candidates for the secretary general office, Ioan Oltean, Sulfina Barbu and Cezar Preda, also filed their candidacy for the deputy president position.
Democrat-Liberal sources, quoted by Mediafax, argued, on Wednesday, that the MEP Monica Macovei might also run for the No. 2 position in the party. According to these sources, Vasile Blaga nominated Sorin Frunzaverde for senior deputy president and Cezar Preda for secretary general, while Emil Boc nominated Gheorghe Falca and Gheorghe Flutur for the first vice-president position. However, it appears no person agreeable to both sides could be found for the fourth senior deputy president office.
Boc is said to have nominated Roberta Anastase, a proposal rejected by Blaga’s team. Another name proposed by Emil Boc’s camp is, allegedly, Monica Macovei who, is said, had initially intended to run for a deputy president position, a candidacy confirmed, indirectly, by the PDL Bucharest leader Elena Udrea. The latter stated, on Wednesday, for Mediafax, that she would back, for this position, “a colleague from the civil society”, adding she would run for one of the deputy president offices. As regards Baconschi, an open supporter of Boc’s motion, the former argued the position he was aiming at was of less consequence: “The position as such is of little consequence. What matters is having some leverage, a say in the party, to be able to mould it, to give it a political direction.”
Alongside Udrea, the list of would-be deputy presidents from Boc’s camp also includes, allegedly, Anca Boagiu, Raluca Turcan, Sever Voinescu, the president of the PDL diaspora organization William Branza, as well as Toader Paleologu, said to have very slim chances to accede to party leadership. Turcan announced her candidacy for a deputy president position yesterday, also voicing her hope Monica Macovei would be among the senior deputy presidents. In Blaga’s camp, competitors for the deputy president offices include Radu Berceanu, Cristian Boureanu and, possibly, Costica Canacheu.
Disgruntlement…
However, there is said to be some commotion in Boc’s camp, as a large number of the MPs who lent their support to the prime-minister are dissatisfied with having been overlooked in the internal campaign, and blame this on Roberta Anastase and Gheorghe Falca, those in charge of Boc’s internal campaign. “They locked us in the office and got us to sign a document supporting Boc and then we were no longer needed. During the internal campaign, Roberta, Oltean, Falca and organization leaders who attended the welcoming ceremony were pushed in front and gave speeches, while the MPs acted as bodyguards,” one of the disgruntled MPs stated, quoted by HotNews. According to the same source, this has been fully exploited by Blaga’s team, which is probing out for negotiations in the ranks of the dissatisfied.
…and denial
The camps of the two favourite candidates for PDL presidency deny, on the other hand, that there have been any attacks or negotiations. The would-be secretary general from Boc’s camp, Ioan Oltean, stated yesterday, for RFI, that no arrangements have been made in the party and that, on the contrary, the race would be fair and difficult.
On Wednesday, while presenting his motion in Oradea, PM Boc stated, in turn, that he was not out to take anyone down, but that he found himself facing everybody else on his own, having to fight “the press, the moguls and the opposition leaders.” He rejected the opposition’s critical remarks, arguing that other parties did not understand the concept of remaining a colleague even when being in a competition. Yesterday, Boc was in Zalau, and, when asked if he would like another office in case he did not win the race for president, he replied, laughing: “Are you talking to me? I think I’ve already answered this question.”
The prime-minister’s latest campaigns visits were not incident-free either. Thus, according to a Social-Democrat deputy, a passenger aboard the TAROM flight that Boc embarked on, on his way to Oradea, made a gesture addressed to the PM, obviously displeased with the delay in take-off on account of some members in Boc’s delegation. However, TAROM representatives denied these allegations, arguing that the delay had been caused by the replacement of the plane.
At the same time, police representatives, quoted by Mediafax, reported that a car from the official convoy accompanying Boc from Oradea Airport to the city centre was involved in a car accident, being hitched by another car, but representatives of the Guard and Protect Service (SPP) subsequently stated the car had not been part of the prime-minister’s convoy.
