PM Dancila: Teodorovici, Fifor, Andronescu, Nicolae, Tăriceanu, one independent, among candidates; Congress to follow

Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Viorica Dancila on Friday announced that the list of candidates for the upcoming presidential election includes several names representing the party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) leader, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, and also an independent candidate. There will be opinion polls carried out with all of their names, with the final candidate to be voted at the PSD Congress in end-July-beginning of August, Dancila added. "The list [of candidates to the presidential election] also includes Mr Teodorovici and Mihai Fifor and all of our colleagues who expressed their will to run, including Serban Nicolae and Mrs Ecaterina Andronescu. All my colleagues who came and said: "We want to run in the presidential elections" and I subjected their names to this poll, for it seems fair to me to give an opportunity to all the colleagues who want this. So I did not leave aside anyone of those who came to me and told me they wanted to run. Besides this final list, we also have a list of leaders of the political parties, since it's normal to do this measurement too," stated Viorica Dancila, in Braila. The PSD leader also added there is constant talk inside the coalition, focused on the governing agenda and also on the actions to be taken in the next interval. "The opinion poll also includes Mr Tariceanu. We included an independent candidate too, without giving his name, to see what is the best solution right now. Of course that, besides the result that these opinion polls will show, it is important to see what the county organisations want - if they want a common candidate or a candidate from the PSD. I said that I want to change how we do things at the party and I want to hold consultations on any topic of interest. We will have a Congress in end July-beginning of August, where we are going to vote our candidate for the presidential elections. We hope it will be the winning one," said the PM. AGERPRES (RO - author: Catalina Matei, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)