Presidential candidate of the electoral alliance „Romania, Forward!” Crin Antonescu said on Sunday night, after ranking third in the presidential election rerun, that the votes have spoken and he is leaving this trial „with his head held high.”

„We have a partial result that I think is an irreversible result, as things are seen. The votes have spoken; the citizens have spoken. I’m sorry. I’m leaving this trial, I think, with my head held high, that’s at least how I feel. I put forward an agenda, some ideas, some solutions, a character. The verdict of the Romanians was different,” he said at his campaign headquarters.

Antonescu added that the people’s vote must be respected.

„I was pleased to meet again with many Romanians. I was pleased to return to the political exercise, because I think I had something to say,” he said about his campaigning experience.

Asked about the future of the coalition that backed him, Antonescu said: „I don’t know what the coalition will do, I was not part of the coalition. The decisions belong exclusively to them.”

He urged Romanians to vote in the presidential runoff. „It was an honour to fight again for some ideas before Romanians,” he said, adding that he did everything he could, in an honest way, while campaigning.

„It would not be good for it [the coalition] to break up, but when 40% of Romanians vote for George Simion … That is a verdict that I cannot challenge, I have no right as a democrat to challenge it. (…) From my point of view, I thought that the only pro-Western coalition that could be formed was the one in operation. But further, the parties have the duty to take into account the will of the citisens, to look for other options if necessary; that it is not my business.”

Asked which candidate he will support in the runoff, he replied: „I am under no obligation, I have no commitment to any party and to no one else at the moment.”

AGERPRES