The announcement inside the Social Democratic Party (PSD) that its national leader Marcel Ciolacu has decided to run for the presidency of Romania does not come as a surprise, but the odds of him winning the runoff presidential election are very long, PNL spokesman Ionut Stroe said on Tuesday.

„It seems to me that we are living in a movie series of the launch of Marcel Ciolacu’s candidacy, a series that continues. Today we have the episode of the internal message which, obviously, is conspicuously fabricated. I understand that he also launched a website in the previous episode, a platform where he asks Romanians what they want. It seems to me at least inappropriate, if not offensive, to ask Romanians after two years of government in which you were prime minister what they want, two years in which you made decisions, two years in which you had the pretence that you represented them, their rights and interests. So, from my point of view, it is obvious that he is aiming for the highest position in the country,” Stroe told AGERPRES.

According to him, it is obvious that the PSD national leader is trying to gradually increase the interest in his candidacy, but „he knows very well that he does not stand very high chances in the second round and, obviously, he is trying to maximise his chances, presenting us, gradually, day by day, one episode at a time.”

In his opinion, the message sent by Marcel Ciolacu to the Social Democrats is a „mobilising” one and „encompassing everything that means PSD resources around the candidacy for the Presidency, even if in the second round the odds are long.”

„It is a risk that Marcel Ciolacu is owning , because, you know very well that there was a time when he wanted it but did not quite want it at the same time. He was somewhat refractory to the idea of taking up this candidacy, he would not have said no, probably any kind of resource in the PSD area is absolutely necessary to be used and mobilised for such competition and it is somehow normal for him to mobilise his own party,” Stroe added.

AGERPRES