The Head of the Social Democrat Party (PSD) Bucharest Robert Negoita posted a video in Facebook on Wednesday, announcing that he would leave the competition for presidency of PSD. Instead, he announced that he would support Liviu Dragnea, who presently holds this position as interim.
“Today, my colleague Liviu Dragnea has announced his candidacy for the position of PSD President. Under these circumstances, I withdraw my intention to run for this position”, says Negoita in a short video recording posted on his Facebook account.
“I am part of the Liviu Dragnea team and I support him in this candidacy, along with PSD Bucharest”, he added.
Previously, the Head of PSD Bucharest Robert Negoita had announced on Tuesday that he would run for the leadership of the party at the forthcoming Congress.
“I am determined to run for the position of PSD President at the ballot of October 11, which I established yesterday in the Executive Committee”, Robert Negoita declared on Tuesday at PSD Headquarters.
Robert Negoita had announced at that time, in a press conference, that he had decided to run for PSD President seeing that the party is in a “vulnerable” situation as its interim leader is a convict and the Prime Minister is facing a trial.
The interim President of the Social Democrat Party, Liviu Dragnea, has declared on Wednesday that he would make the announcement on his candidacy to the leadership of the party by the end of the week, mentioning that “it is not a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’.”
Also on Tuesday, Negoita declared journalists that he had discussed with interim PSD President Liviu Dragnea about his candidacy, which does not seem to “bother” Dragnea.
“It does not bother him, we respect each other and competition only stimulates us. I have an excellent relationship with Liviu Dragnea, I respect him for everything he has done and for everything he is. He did not announce his candidacy, I did”, Negoita concluded.
Negoita on pressure to give up candidacy: Do I look like a man that would give in?
PSD Bucharest President Robert Negoita stated on Thursday, when asked whether pressure was exerted in order for him to withdraw his candidacy for the PSD leadership, that he is not the kind of man that would allow himself to be intimidated.
Asked whether pressure was exerted on him in order for him to give up his candidacy, Robert Negoita answered: “Do I look like a man that would give in to pressure?”
Serban Nicolae also steps aside
Serban Nicolae said on Thursday he was dropping his candidacy for the leadership of PSD, complaining about the fact that the organisation of the congress was ‘profoundly vitiated’.
The senator who had announced his candidacy for party president has decided to exit the race, sending a critical letter to the current leadership, accusing that the organisation of the congress was ‘profoundly vitiated’ and demanding that the whole process be stopped, according to PSD sources quoted by Mediafax.
Serban Nicolae has written a letter to the PSD leaders, telling them that the new rules for the election of the president of the party were not transparent and did not give the candidates a chance to present their vision for the party. Under such conditions, there is no real competition – Serban Nicolae says – according to Social-Democratic sources. Moreover, the senator complains about the entire procedure for the organisation of the congress being ‘profoundly vitiated’, for which reason he has decided to quit the race. He urges the party to stop the procedure based on the current rules and return to the previous procedures used for the election of people to positions in the party.
On the other hand, PSD sources say that Serban Nicolae has decided to drop his candidacy in the context where his organisation, PSD Mehedinti, has already announced its support for the candidate Liviu Dragnea. In that way, the senator would have lost the support of at least 10% of the organisations, according to the current regulations, in his effort to submit his candidacy.
Mircea Geoană: ‘Liviu Dragnea, someone who knows how to deceive’
PSRO President Mircea Geoana believes the future PSD congress set on 11 October, is ‘a farce’, and that the candidacy of Liviu Dragnea, ‘someone who knows how to deceive’, equals ‘condemnation to irrelevance for PSD’.
During a press conference in Cluj-Napoca, on Thursday, Mircea Geoana was asked to comment on Liviu Dragnea’s candidacy for president of PSD during the 1 October congress. He answered that it seemed to him a strategic error made by the people at the basis of PSD.
‘Why Dragnea insist on being a candidate is his problem, why PSD accepts it is the question we need to ask. It’s a condemnation to irrelevance for PSD. Dragnea has re-activated all those in the party who were in conflict with the law, subject to criminal investigations. It’s an inadequacy to what the Romanian public expects. When you support such a proposal, there is this feeling of collective suicide, people try to protect themselves in the hope justice won’t reach them. It seems to me like a strategic error made by those who represent the basis. My frustration is that there is no voice to say that the direction is wrong, that you cannot move on with people who have integrity issues in Romania and Europe’, Geoana told Mediafax.
According to him, Dragnea is ‘loaned from PD, a shrewd guy who knows how to deceive, who uses flattery, but not someone one can count on, there is a level of incompetence you cannot overcome’.
‘PSD is in a solution crisis today. The congress on 11 October is a pseudo-congress, it’s a farce, not a congress, with the pre-announced winner, with an interim president who pulls the strings, changes county organisations, tailors the congress to measure. He threatens Negoita to make him step back. Is that a democratic party where there is competition? This competition is not for real, this is neither a social-democratic nor a democratic party, it’s a phantom of the party that I once headed and loved’, Geoana said.
Asked if there was a risk of PSD breaking apart after the congress, the PSRO leader answered that the party was already broken, the fracture lines being deep, only leading to ‘a genuine fracture’. He also said that Victor Ponta and Liviu Dragnea had ‘an arranged marriage in 2010’, as Ponta needed Dragnea ‘to sort out the congress, and Dragnea needed some kid he could manipulate and use as a front man, trusting he would control the party and government’.
Mircea Geoana participated in Cluj-Napoca, on Thursday, in the launch of the Cluj organisation of PSRO, where the interim-president was ex-PDL MP Mircia Giurgiu.
