National leader of ten National Liberal Party (PNL) Alina Gorghiu said Sunday in the western town of Deva that there is no disunity between PNL and independent Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos.
Gorghiu attended an election rally organised by the local county branch of PNL to unveil some of the party’s county candidates in the December 11 general election.
“I want to tell people of Deva, of Hunedoara County, that there is no disunity between PNL and Dacian Ciolos, as claimed by the television channels rooting for PSD. There is a good, honest partnership between the two sides; this is a liaison that proves the National Liberal Party has understood that change is needed in the Romanian political class. There is no other party in Romania to understand that politics cannot be done by the same obsolete figures such as [PSD’s] Dragnea, Ecaterina Andronescu, Rovana Plumb or Victor Ponta,” added Gorghiu.
In the midst of the crowd she was addressing, despite a drizzling rain, Gorghiu said she is proud of the candidate lists drawn by PNL all around the country, mentioning that PNL proposes government programme rooted in real figures.
“There are some pet projects of mine that we will make come true in the first half of 2017. There would be a flat 16-percent tax on labour, Value-Added Taxes, income (…) as against 35 percent advocated by PSD. There is another project related to uniform public pay because both public sector and private sector workers have to fare better in Romania. If we do not have more decent wages in Romania, there will be no prospect for bridging the gaps separating us from other Western European civilised countries,’ said Gorghiu.
She went on to say that the special public pensions for law makers will be disbanded if PNL gets at rule.
“Tell the pensioners that they are not PSD’s monopoly; that the first thing we do when we get in power will be to stop taxing most of the public pensions, except for those privileged pensions for lawmakers that PSD has awarded to itself and that in January 2017 will become history with a Liberal government at rule,” said Gorghiu.
At the end of her stump speech, Gorghiu said Romanai has to be governed by PNL for the centennial of the December 1, 1918 Greater Union.
Organisers say attending the rally in Unirii Square of Deva were nearly 2,000 Liberals from Hunedoara County. The event ended with the performance of a Unification Round Dance featuring PNL Hunedoara candidates for the December 11 general election.
” TVR, stuck in professional promiscuity because of its execs loyal to PSD”
National leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL) Alina Gorghiu is accusing the TVR public television broadcaster of censorship after TVR postponed the airing of an interview with PNL-backed independent Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos as part of a “Viata satului” (Village Life) programme.
“Unfortunately, because of the decisions of its execs loyal to the Social Democratic Party (PSD), TVR stays stuck in professional promiscuity, no matter how hard it has tried to clean up its act. There will come a time when all the supported chieftains have to pay back for all the years when the PSD management covered their losses and lack of professionalism. TVR is now censoring Dacian Ciolos for reasons that he would be canvassing, but it leaves [former national leader of PSD] Ponta to showcase his achievements unhindered. What’s more, Ciolos is neither a candidate, nor a party member, unlike Ponta, who on October 26 at the TVR studios was both,” Gorghiu said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
She added that “the double standards of the public television” would also have some “private reason,” namely the fact that “some of the bosses used to holding sinecures has been denied application for a much coveted office of consul general.”
“Despite its journalists, TVR is still the television channel of personal interests, of the PSD’s group interests, forgetting that it is nonetheless supported by public money. As a matter of fact, [PSD national leader] Dragnea would have liked the licence fees repealed precisely to replace them with full subsidies so as to squash the last shred of illusionary journalistic independence. I am deeply outraged by all that is happening, by censorship on order and, what is more serious, I feel that I am not writing about Romania, but about Turkey or Russia, both PSD’s political idols,” reads Gorghiu’s post.
She also warned that “if the civil society, media organisations and the National Audio-Visual Council (CNA) fail to react, it means they have failed to grasp the seriousness of the censorship PSD is capable of.”
TVR has decided to postpone the broadcast on Sunday of an interview with incumbent Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos for a programme on countryside matters, mentioning the ongoing electioneering for the December 11 general election as a reason to the point.
“Given the ongoing electioneering period, the SRTv management has decided to postpone the broadcast of an interview with Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos for ‘Viata satului’. We want to avoid any misinterpretation that could arise for several reasons. The first reason is the result of the prime minister being the electoral image of a party, which can give the impression of an electioneering programme, which would be unfair; the image of the prime minister features on both the electoral posters and electoral videos aired by all stations, TVR includes,’ TVR said Sunday in a press statement.
Prime Minister has answered in good faith to an invitation from TVR to him in his official capacity, recording as far back as Wednesday an interview for Viata Satului, but the notification from TVR that the broadcast of the interview had been postponed was made Saturday evening, official sources told Agerpres.
“We need the legitimacy of the ballot”
PNL President Alina Gorghiu stated on Sunday, in Deva, that Liberals need the legitimacy conferred by the voters’ ballots in order “to build a modern Romania.”
Present in Deva at the launch of PNL candidates, Alina Gorghiu told Liberals to turn toward the electorate, stating that the legitimacy that voters’ ballots confer to parliamentarians is needed.
“The casting of ballots is essential. A modern Romania, a just Romania is built by legitimising Parliament, and Parliament – a credible Parliament like we want – is legitimised through the ballots, with a lot of ballots. Help Romanians understand the need to be at the ballot box on December 11, the need for us to leave Hunedoara loaded with the legitimacy of this vote, because we will return here to solve the problems,” Alina Gorghiu stated before PNL sympathisers in Deva.
The PNL President stated that 100 years after the Great Union a Liberal Prime Minister must give the “positive mandate.”
At the same time, Gorghiu said there is no kind of break between PNL and Dacian Ciolos “as claimed by PSD’s television stations.”
“We are part of a good partnership, an honest partnership, we are part of a connection that means PNL has understood that change is a must in Romanian politics. No other political party in Romania has understood that politics can no longer take place with the same worn-out faces. (…) Let’s tell people we made mistakes, that there were moments when we know we let them down, but that we are the only party with good will in this country, the only party that can bring well-being to Romanians,” Alina Gorghiu added.
She also stated that change does not mean only new people but also a governance platform “supported without populism, with data, with good will.”
