Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Friday, in connection to a bill that would allow President Klaus Iohannis to run in this year’s general election before his term of office is over, that a constitutional right should not be obstructed, but it is important to observe the fundamental law.

„I will express myself inside the Social Democratic Party (PSD). We have already convened a meeting for Monday. I will talk to my colleagues and I will present my point of view very clearly within the party and parliamentary groups. In principle, it is right that anyone can run. Someone should not obstruct a constitutional right. The most important thing is to observe the Constitution,” the prime minister said at a news conference in Oradea, at the headquarters of the Prefect’s Office.

Ciolacu added that he „never” voted for Iohannis and will not do so.

Asked if it would be normal for Iohannis to run in the general election as the incumbent president of the country, Ciolacu said: „I don’t know, ask him. I understand that he holds weekly press conferences. He goes on television and I think that, for sure, you will be able to ask him.”

National Liberal Party (PNL) MPs Daniel Fenechiu and Gabriel Andronache submitted on Wednesday to Parliament a bill that would allow the President of Romania to run in the general election as an independent on the lists of a party or an alliance, in the last three months of his term of office.

The bill amends Article 52 of the Law on the election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.

„The President of Romania, subject to date of the election to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, when in the last three months of term of office may run as an independent on the lists of a political party, a political alliance or an electoral alliance for a senator or MP seat. If elected senator or deputy, the President of Romania, after validation, will have to choose between being a senator or MP and staying president,” according to the bill.

AGERPRES