Interim chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL), in the ruling coalition, Catalin Predoiu said on Monday that the effort regarding European and American „contacts” will intensify, adding that Romania has to preserve political stability, explain the developments in its political life, including what happened in the 2024 presidential election, and do more to guarantee free speech.
„Romania is not the only European Union member state that does not participate in the informal Paris meeting, a special format that has already been announced to extend. (…) Of course, we have a lot of work to do in foreign policy. We have a lot to do in our European and American contacts, and I am convinced that this will intensify, this effort will intensify. (…) I cannot speak on behalf of the President, but, once again, there is an intense work that is being done in diplomacy and it must be intensified in order to multiply these contacts,” Predoiu said at the House of Parliament.
He added that the US administration has a different style of communication and dialogue with their allies. Predoiu said that Romania has to preserve its political stability, explain the developments in its political life, including what happened in the presidential elections, and do more to guarantee free speech.
„It’s definitely a different style; everyone is in the process of adapting to this new style; the faster we do it in Romania the better. What I think must be done is to preserve political stability – it is the most responsible thing that the government parties must do and will do it for Romania, not only for the government. We need to quickly and further develop economic projects with the United States to round up, if you will, the economic projects carried out under European programmes, on European funds; we need to do more to explain the developments in political life in Romania, including what happened in the elections last November, to explain the fact that the elections were distorted by affecting the chances of the candidates participating in them. There are issues that are being clarified regarding the funding of these presidential campaigns, and I also believe that we need to do more to guarantee free speech and to discourage any form of censorship of free speech. (…) I am convinced that both at the level of the Presidency and at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the level of the government, steps will be taken in this direction as well,” said Predoiu.
He added that the presidential election of 2024 was voided by the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR), with the electoral process not being stopped by the Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT).
„One – it was not CSAT that stopped the electoral process and voided the election, but the CCR’s decision. Two – because the issue of the documentary contribution of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the works of CSAT in relation to the classic objectives of the intelligence service of the Ministry of Interior was raised in the public space, I would like to specify that all the bodies making up CSAT referred to the agenda of this council, to the item on the agenda and their attributions have been subsumed to that agenda of the council. Three – related to public communication – the Ministry of Internal Affairs cannot substitute itself for CSAT in terms of communication of the council’s works. (…) On the part of explaining the CSAT’s works, (…) there is no doubt that the institution that issued the decision must first of all make this effort, after which the other bodies are subsumed, but we cannot substitute each other,” said Predoiu.
AGERPRES
