The presidential candidate announced by the PSD-PNL-UDMR coalition, Crin Antonescu, said on Tuesday that the public presence of Calin Georgescu resembles that of a "ghost", deeming the possibility of the latter becoming head of state as an "unacceptable, dangerous alternative" for Romania.
"Calin Georgescu is an unacceptable, dangerous, even dramatic alternative for Romania, in the hypothetical situation in which he will become president," Crin Antonescu told private broadcaster Antena 3.
He pointed out that the reasons behind the high number of votes in the first round of the presidential elections on November 24 for a candidate like Calin Georgescu must be identified.
"Our problem is to identify why a large number of voters, (...) the largest number as they were counted in the first round, could vote for a ghost, for a man whose name they, perhaps, did not know well, they confused it in later statements, about whose ideas they knew nothing or, even worse, about whom they knew the things that we know today - I am talking about his statements. Where does this annoyance, this frustration, this anger come from in a sizable segment of Romanian voters to risk what for us all citizens, not politicians, is so precious and we have won so hard - the status of a democratic country, the status of a European country, consolidated recently with all kinds of things that have been achieved, Schengen, Schengen on land, visas in the United States, for example, where the figures, including economic figures, no one claims that Romania is heaven on earth, but in Romania life is better than it used to be. Based on economic figures, a large number of people live better than they did 30 years ago or ten years ago or five years ago. Where does this anger come from because it is not irrationality, but it is a means of expression in a certain context and this must be understood by those who want to continue to do politics," Antonescu argued.
He maintained that Georgescu managed to convince many voters without having a real public presence, without details about his person being known.
"I would directly call him a drug, which is being served, a cheap but effective and destructive drug, which is being served to some people. I don't hesitate to say it. What I am saying now does not at all mean that I feel entitled to challenge or, God forbid, to despise the choice of some people, but precisely the effort to understand why this could happen or might happen," said Crin Antonescu. AGERPRES