Opposition PMP to unveil its presidential candidate by August 10

The opposition People's Movement Party (PMP) will unveil its presidential candidate before August 10, the party's chairman, Eugen Tomac, said on Friday, adding that the party commissioned an opinion poll comprising him, Robert Turcescu, Theodor Paleologu, Mihail Neamtu and George Mioc. "We had a very hot meeting, where we only discussed the upcoming presidential election, a very important election all Romanians are waiting for. As I pointed out at the beginning of our meeting, PMP will go into this campaigning with its own candidate. Currently we have a strategy that the party has set going forward that regards the nomination of the best candidate that PMP wishes to send in this political battle. We have set out as a step, as a first step, commissioning an opinion poll in the shortest possible time that people inside PMP will be tested, and also political figures close to PMP or the Right, our political line and President Basescu's. So we will conduct the analysis in the period immediately ahead, and I am convinced that at the next convention of our National Executive Council or National College, which brings together all chapter chairs from all the counties and abroad, implicitly the Republic of Moldova, we will determine what PMP's candidate will be for the presidential election," Tomac said after a meeting of the PMP's National Executive Council. He said that Romania needs a "courageous" president who "vibrates with the Romanian people and is focused on the priorities of the country - an educated Romania, a Romania where values are respected, valued and promoted, a Romania that brings back to us the dignity that Romanians want." Asked about the names on the poll list, he said: "Only two names are insiders, while three names are outsiders, with whom we talked and whom we informed that we would be interested in testing them in terms of public perception of the notoriety and credibility they enjoy." "I told my colleagues that I agree to be in the polling. As far as the party is concerned, I proposed and my colleagues agreed to see exactly how Mr Robert Turcescu fares publicly because he is a former well known journalist and an important member of our party. We also had a discussion with Mr Theodor Paleologu and agreed to add his name to the opinion poll. As I said, we also discussed with people who are close to the values that our party promotes; we had a conversation with Mihai Neamtu, a credible, right-wing, conservative voice and with an important figure abroad known to the public in Romania for his political comments, Mr George Mioc of the U.S. So, there are five names that PMP will test in the next few weeks, and after long debates in this room, we will make a decision regarding our candidate in the presidential election," said Tomac. He mentioned that the PMP presidential candidate will be validated before the signature collection campaign starts. "All research will be ready around that time; by August 10 we will make a decision, but it will take a few days because there is a profound research on the ground, as we want to receive from the citizens a confirmation as close as possible of the profile that the party is currently waiting for. I am convinced that we will be able to make the best decision; I am convinced that we will have a candidate who will make a good impression in the presidential election," the PMP leader added. Asked if a new right-wing candidate would break this part of the political stages even more, Tomac mentioned that PMP had been trying for a year now to create a right-wing alliance to run together in the election, but that failed to materialise. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Florea, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)

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