#2019PresidentialElection Mircea Diaconu: I have no doctrine, which is why I have dared run for president

The independent candidate in the presidential elections, Mircea Diaconu, said on Wednesday, during a meeting with voters in Vaslui, that he is truly independent, although he is supported by political parties. He said that since 2014, when he ran for the European Parliament, he has been active only as an independent, exercising this status in a political group and in a political world. "I also believe that I have documents to put on the table, that I am the only one who is independent with papers. (...) An independent does not have to be a paria. An independent is a species that can be and must be extremely interested in political, civic type topics, but which is not regimented in a doctrine. This is what it is all about it and my exact status is precisely this. I have no doctrine and therefore I dared to run for president. Theoretically and constitutionally a president needn't have a doctrine, he/she is not a partisan - so no doctrine, he is not a politician - so no party. This is me at the moment, and the others are not. That is exactly what I am not. There are party groups with their leader participating in the elections," said Mircea Diaconu. He specified that he is supported by certain parties and that he needs this support only from a logistical point of view, because "the purely independent in Romania, with our laws, is doomed to failure". Mircea Diaconu stressed that Romania's political life is characterized by violence and that the president does not exercise the role of arbitrator as he should. "Now, the situation specific to Romania is disarming because the war, the violence between the parties have reached the maximum and the moment one of these sides in the presidential elections with its party win these elections, (...) the war with the other side begins the day after. You can well see what is going on in Parliament right now, exactly in this sense: the break, the violence, the political fight without arbitrator. This political struggle must have a form of non-party, impartial, neutral arbitration and this must be the president. Unfortunately, exactly our current president, I am afraid that of yesterday as well, (...) introduced themselves into the political struggle exactly as a driving force, not as a tranquilizer," said Diaconu. He avoided giving an answer when asked who sees in the second round of the presidential election. "I don't see anyone. If I were very tall, I would get up, look and see the second round. I am a little shorter, I see nothing in the second round," said the candidate. On Wednesday, Mircea Diaconu participated in a meeting with the citizens in the Civic Center Square in the municipality of Vaslui, being accompanied by representatives of the Pro Romania and ALDE leaders at county level. AGERPRES (RO - author: Loredana Ciobanu, editor: Marius Fratila; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Bogdan Gabaroi)