PSD leadership to meet next Tuesday to decide candidate for presidential elections (sources)

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) leadership next Tuesday will meet at the Parliament Palace to decide the candidate for the presidential elections, to be later validated by the August 3 Congress of the party, political sources told AGERPRES. The same sources mentioned on Tuesday that the Social Democrats will have a meeting of the Standing Bureau first, starting at 11 am, to be followed by a meeting of the National Executive Committee (CExN) at 12 pm. The PSD leader, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, last week stated that, in case the party will ask for it, she will run in the presidential elections but, "at this point, I would rather go with another candidate." "I haven't considered this yet, I just thought we are going to support another candidate and I, as a Prime Minister, Chairperson of the PSD, I will support this other candidate to win the presidential elections. But I wouldn't want anyone to believe I am a coward. If the party asks me to run in the presidential elections and believes this is the only solution, then I will accept what the party says. However, at this point, I believe it will be best to have another candidate. For us it's important to back the persons that enjoy the trust of the party and who will be supported by all organisations, who will create that wave of trust we keep talking about, both among our members and among our sympathizers, but also among other citizens, for I hope we will get a good score," said Dancila, at DC News, when asked if she believes it's normal for the PSD leader to also be the candidate to run in the presidential elections, even when she is also the Prime Minister. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Florea, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)