Crin Antonescu’s presidential candidacy validated by the PSD leadership

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The PSD leadership has validated today Crin Antonescu’s candidacy in the May presidential elections and established that the party Congress will be convened on February 2, which will give the final vote on Antonescu’s candidacy. The decisions were made though as a matter of principle at the PSD National Political Council meeting on Tuesday, without any poll being presented, according to PSD senator Radu Oprea.

“Today, in the National Council, we did not discuss polls, we validated Mr. Crin Antonescu’s candidacy. The next step will be the validation of Mr. Crin Antonescu in the party Congress, on February 2, but I think today’s decision says a lot (…) We are on a predictable, very clear calendar. Already, from what I see, things are irreversible in the entire coalition,” Oprea declared at the end of the PSD meeting.

Asked how Crin Antonescu’s candidacy was validated “blindly”, without analyzing polls, Oprea said that “polls exist and will be analyzed in the coalition”: “In polls, it’s not just about how much Crin Antonescu or another candidate has in percentages, but also about other information about what Romanians think, in order to be able to structure an electoral campaign”.

Responding to questions from journalists regarding a possible presidential candidacy by Victor Ponta, Radu Oprea said that in the PSD Political Council “there was no discussion about Victor Ponta”.

Victor Ponta hinted on January 19 that he did not rule out entering this year’s presidential race, stating that “I have no one to vote for” and indicating that the current governing coalition has no chance of taking its candidate to the second round. Three days before these statements, PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu declared that “Victor Ponta cannot be the PSD candidate for the May 4 elections, given the agreement in the Coalition to support a single candidate, namely Crin Antonescu. In other words, if he runs, he must resign from the PSD or be expelled.”

The Avangarde poll published on Monday evening shows Crin Antonescu in second place. To the question “Who would you vote for in the presidential elections?”, the ranking resulting from the answers is as follows: Călin Georgescu – 38%, Crin Antonescu – 25%, Nicușor Dan – 17%, George Simion – 6%, Elena Lasconi – 6% (finalist of the canceled presidential elections) and Diana Șoșoacă. The percentages are calculated only from the number of those who indicated a candidate, i.e. 81% of the total number.

In the event of a second round, several scenarios were considered. Thus, in a presidential final between Călin Georgescu and Crin Antonescu, the former would obtain 39%, and the latter 38%. The share of those who chose the “don’t know/no answer” option was 23%. PSD and PNL had initially decided, regarding Crin Antonescu’s candidacy, that they would wait for the data from the polls, then validate him in the National Political Council.

However, in the PSD camp, things are not so clear regarding Antonescu. Some social democrats do not believe in Crin Antonescu, there is also the alternative, which some see, to be a PSD candidate for the presidential elections, who would have a chance of winning them, media sources revealed.

Many of the party leaders who disagree with Crin Antonescu would rather support Victor Ponta. The scenario from the winter could be repeated. Then, PSD leaders, although they publicly said that they supported Marcel Ciolacu, behind closed doors, when they made the calculations, in fact gave some of the votes to other candidates.

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