Flaming meeting at PSD. Dancila in tears after being offended by some party leaders. Ana Birchall, a mayor and 3 MPs ousted from PSD

Troubled waters in PSD in the first party meeting after the first round of presidential election. The presidential candidate Viorica Dancila ended up in tears, accusing some SocDem leaders of offending her and she even threatened to give up her candidature.

Moreover, she accused the PSD local leaders of not endorsing her enough in the first round and of scoring low in some counties considered PSD fiefs in the past decades.

At the same time, Dancila and the PSD leadership lashed out against all those who opposed the party stances lately, thus ousting such members as former Justice minister Ana Birchall, Cozmin Gusa, the three MPs who voted the Orban Cabinet, Eugen Gioancă, Cristina Burciu and Elena Hărătău, and also the mayor of Bacau, Cosmin Necula, who was saying on Monday that many Social Democrats were ashamed to endorse Viorica Dancila for the presidential election.

As for the injuries, local media reported that Viorica Dăncilă would have told Claudiu Manda in the meeting: “To say that you are losing elections because you are going with a stupid does you no credit”.

The former PM had a nervous breakdown, started to cry and wanted to leave the Executive Committee meeting and locked in her office. She even threatened to withdraw from the presidential race if she is underestimated and offended by her colleagues. Dancila also reproached the PSD leaders that they “were on vacation” during the electoral campaign.

Following the scandal, Claudiu Manda’s wife, Olguta Vasilescu has quit from the position of campaign manager. Manda eventually went and apologized to Dancila, while Olguta Vasilescu came back on her decision to step down.

In the press conference after the meeting, both Viorica Dancila and Claudiu Manda denied they would have had a row. “You see Mr. Manda next to me, I don’t know who gave you this information (about the dispute), I barely cry, many I had tears in my eye when I entered the runoffs, but they were tears of joy. Of course, there were talks, I yelled at my colleagues, I pulled their ears,” Dancila said ironically.

She claimed she had left the CEx meeting because she was speaking on the phone, for somebody had just called her to tell her Iohannis was not going to come for a debate. “I think you should change your sources. Mr. Manda proved to be a man by the way he managed the election in Craiova and Dolj,” Dancila said, also denying she intends to withdraw from the presidential race: “Not at all.”

Manda added: “Mrs Dancila has won in Dolj and she she will also win in the election runoff. The rest is cancan”.

On the other hand, Dancila accused that if it is someone who offended her this is Klaus Iohannis.

“The President offended the premier, he offended the woman Viorica Dancila. The President is not allowed to offend a woman, regardless of that woman’s statute in the society. I am a strong person. The debates in the party are many times contradictory, but the colleagues are making every effort for us to win elections,” she said.

After that, Dancila reheated the main topic of campaign against her opponent in the runoff, reminding that President Iohannis owns six houses obtained through private lessons he used to give as a teacher and that he is owing money to the state.

“There are six houses that he obtained through private lessons, he should give the recipe to all teachers in Romania. The fact you have some funds you have to return to the state and you don’t means Mr Iohannis has some issues to clear up. I think he is running away of a direct debate to flee from accountability. Let’s remember Iohannis’ statements from 2014 when he accused Mr Ponta that he is arrogant for refusing to come for a debate. Mr. Iohannis shows the same arrogance now“, Dancila said.