Social Democrat leader and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, attending on Friday an election rally called on both the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) to put aside their pride and doctrine clashes, because Romania is facing economic, social, global and security challenges.
"We succeeded - myself and Mr. Ilie Bolojan, as well as head of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Kelemen Hunor, and national minorities leader Mr. Pambuccian - to keep the coalition united after an electoral campaign and we pulled a unique performance because this time we all managed to keep our promise," he said, noting that the times are over when doctrine talk was still a thing. "The challenges we have now, both economic, social, global, security, trade wars - we hadn't lived through this yet - there is no time for whims. So, dear PSD and PNL members, I tell you as straightforward as possible: 'Stop with the nonsense! Stop with the philosophizing! Stop with tossing around opinions, because we are in for trouble," the prime minister declared in Resita.
"For three months in the election campaign all we did was to swear at each other, after three years of construction, after three years in which we managed to navigate Romania's most complicated moments together - economic, social and security crises. And now we sit with our heads down, because we no longer swear at each other and let others hurl criticism at us, some guys who did nothing or who, at the very best, only screamed their heads off. Look at the Parliament! Look at who took your seats in Parliament, because we didn't have the brains to set out pride aside. It's time to wake up. We have an informal president of this coalition - Crin Antonescu - but this is just the beginning," the prime minister stressed, stating that he wants is "a normal president for Romania, a president who does not make a political difference from that position, a president who represents all Romanians, regardless of whether they voted for him or not."
"Don't we really realize that now is the time to defend all our work of 35 years after the Revolution? After all our European path, all our security guarantees ? All of Europe was looking at us with pride after we jointly sent 50% of the MEPs to Parliament. (...) It's time to understand the real stakes and leave aside sterile speculation that infests this electoral campaign," Ciolacu urged.
Ideologies - he also said - are defended through democracy, ideologies are put into practice through public policies. "Ideologies of a respectful coalition take into account all parties, so as to actually meet all of the Romanians' demands. Yes, UDMR is an example. How UDMR reacts, how UDMR gets together before each election, that's how I would like Romanians in the country and the diaspora to come together. Let the Romanians overseas vote for whoever they want, how they want in the three voting days, there is no problem, but when it comes about Romania, let's all talk the same lingo," the prime minister said.