PSD deputy Chairman Adrian Ţuţuianu, one of Liviu Dragnea’s opponents, presented to his party colleagues an opinion poll reading that the party leader would take only 4% of the votes in the presidential election, while Klaus Iohannis is quoted at 23%. The figures appear in a recording broadcast by Romania TV private broadcaster.
“The first round. If presidential elections were organised, Klaus Iohannis – 23%, Călin Popescu Tăriceanu – 9%, Laura Codruţa Kovesi – 8%, a candidate from the USR in the survey, Dacian Cioloş from ‘Romania Together’ – 7%, Liviu Dragnea – 4%. I did not invent this 4%. You can find it here. The second round. Today, if we do nothing, Iohannis also dfeats Tariceanu, he also defeats Firea, and also defeats Dragnea,” Ţuţuianu said in the recording made at a meeting with local county leaders.
He criticized Dragnea and the way the three prime ministers were appointed.
“Nowhere in the world has it happened to go to the president with a name of prime minister whom the party does not know. Under the pretext not to be attacked, he proposed Shevil Shhaideh. A lot of people were bothered by this matter, and we behaved like a monkey party. The replacing of three prime ministers was a tragedy for the party. The quality of the government, a tragedy,” Ţuţuianu said.
Adrian Ţuţuianu, PSD deputy Chairman and leader of the social-democratic organization of Dâmboviţa County, refers to Economy Minister Dănuţ Andruşcă, saying that “he is so stupid he cannot listen for more than 5 minutes when someone talks with him,” and that his only connection with the economy is that he “owned a vulcanization shop.”
In reply, the PSD Senator said for the same TV station that the allegations were taken out of the context and that the recordings were counterfeit.
Contacted by the television station, Adrian Ţuţuianu, former defence minister with the Tudose Cabinet, said the recordings feature talks from meetings he had with mayors and chairmen of local organizations, but his statements were taken out of context.
“From what I understand, there are recordings of meetings that I have had with mayors, with chairmen of local organizations, county councilors. They have been processed in the sense that there are certain parts taken from a certain context, but the base is what I said at the Executive Committee sitting and in the letter that was made public, things that I have discussed with my colleagues in the party. It is true and I said we were all wrong. I also said it in the national Executive Committee. I do not think it is normal to do this. Obviously, I assumed my part because I was there,” Ţuţuianu said in a telephone interview Tuesday night for Romania TV.
He added that the opinion polls are the ones presented at the PSD Executive Committee sitting on September 21, when Liviu Dragnea received the vote of confidence from the majority of party members, figures indicating that the party is falling in the opinion polls, from 47% in the 2016 parliamentary elections to 35%, to maybe 30% as it currently stands.
Asked whether he would remain in the PSD, considering his dissatisfactions, Adrian Tutuianu replied that he is in the party for two decades and that he remains in the political formation.
Adrian Ţuţuianu, along with the Bucharest mayor general Gabriela Firea and Deputy Prime Minister Paul Stănescu, was one of the PSD leader’s opponents within the party, who, through an open letter, asked Liviu Dragnea to take a step back from the party leadership.
Liviu Dragnea: They denounce each other to the press
Liviu Dragnea has refused on Wednesday to comment on the recordings.
“When they record each other this is what happens, they denounce each other to the press,” Dragnea said, stressing that he cannot “share such language.”
“We’ll discuss these issues in the party. If, following the Executive Committee sitting, they did not understand that the party’s base requires all members to address the promises made during the campaign, it means they are making a big mistake,” Dragnea said.