The Social Democrats claim that the „presidential candidate” Elena Lasconi „takes USR [Save Romania Union] hypocrisy to the superlative”, because „she hired her husband at the party, on public money.” In reply, the USR leaders claim that „PSD [Social Democratic Party] members are scared that Elena Lasconi is breathing down Marcel Ciolacu’s neck.”

In a press release, PSD on Wednesday accused „the ridiculous demagoguery of USR Chairwoman Elena Lasconi who sets herself up as a moral standard, but continues without any hesitation not only to protect and promote the corrupt and criminals in the party, but also to practice ordinary nepotism.”

„She propelled her husband from the position of an unemployed lawyer, with no track record and no prospects, in the position of legal advisor to the parliamentary group of the USR, paid from public money! It is obvious that the USR led by Chairwoman Elena Lasconi is as bad and harmful as the USR of the period of Drula, called Ranga [Crawbar in English]. It has learned nothing from the bitter defeat administered by voters and continues to be the same party of scandal at any price, of false accusations and propaganda at any price,” say the social democrats.

The USR did not delay the replies, through the voice of Ionut Mosteanu, leader of the party’s deputies, and party spokesperson Cristina Pruna.

„The PNL [National Liberal Party] members are desperate because they have a candidate on whom they have spent millions and is only panting at the end of the list of presidential candidates. The PSD members are scared that Elena Lasconi is breathing down Ciolacu’s neck and they don’t get to an agreement with Geoana to mind his business somewhere else and they started with the attacks. Today it’s about Elena’s husband’s employment at the parliamentary group. As group leader, in recent years, I have hired people from the parliamentary group at the Chamber of Deputies in consultation with fellow MPs, the criteria being trustworthiness and professionalism. I have always put the USR members first because the most important thing is to be able to trust each other, because there in the group we decide important political issues – what we vote, what drafts we submit, what amendments we submit, how we block certain things, how/what/whether we challenge at the CCR [Constitutional Court of Romania], how we navigate through procedure loopholes and tricks,” Mosteanu wrote on Facebook.

He added that the salaries are between 3,000 and 6,000 lei net monthly, „not very attractive salaries for a skilled man in Bucharest.”

According to Cristina Pruna, „PSD has descended one more level on the scale of rudeness: it is attacking the family of Marcel Ciolacu’s main opponent,” adding that Valeriu Zgonea was appointed as head of ANCOM [National Authority for Communications Administration and Regulation] „without any knowledge in the area and with a criminal conviction to his record,” and a sociologist was appointed to the Ministry of Digitisation.

AGERPRES