Romanian political parties wrap up lists for European Parliament elections coming up soon
Romania's political parties finished their lists of candidates for the European Parliament elections scheduled on June 7 and will hand them in to the Central Election Bureau, next to the necessary signatures required by law.
The
Social-Democrat ruling party (PSD) has 15 candidates on the list,
including Adrian Severin, Rovana Plumb, Ioan Mircea Pascu, Adriana
Ticau, Daciana Sarbu, Corina Cretu, Victor Bostinaru, Sabin Cutas,
Catalin Sorin Ivan, Viorica Dancila, Minodora Cliveti, Aristide Roibu,
Viorel Marian Dragomir and Marius Oprescu.
The 15th candidate has not been announced yet, but Ioan Enciu stands
most chances to be appointed by PSD. He will be supported by the
Bucharest-Ilfov party organization. The Social-Democrats estimate to
win 15 mandates at the upcoming elections.
The Liberal-Democrat (PD-L) ruling party will open the list with former
premier and first vice president Theodor Stolojan. Other candidates
are former independent justice minister Monica Macovei, Cristian Preda,
former foreign affairs ministerTraian Razvan Ungureanu and Marian Jean
Marinescu, but also Iosif Matula (Arad), Sebastian Bodu (Bucharest),
Petru Luhan (Suceava), Rares Niculescu (Cluj), Oana Antonescu
(Dambovita), Constantin Dumitriu (Galati), Dragos David (Brasov),
Elvira Andronescu (Alba), Irina Schrotter (Neamt) and Alexandru Nazare
(Bucharest). PD-L aims to get 14-15 mandates.
The Liberals (PNL), the main opposition party in Romania, put
vicepresident Norica Nicolai on top of their list, followed by Adina
Valean, Renate Weber, Ramona Manescu, Cristian Busoi, Ben-Oni Ardelean,
Ovidiu Silaghi, Csibi Magor Imre, Catalin Turliuc, Cristian Cojocaru,
Ionel Muscalu, Radu Surugiu, Radu Puscariu, Nechita Eduard Hellvig and
Roberto Dietrich. They target seven-eight mandates.
The Hungarian Democratic Alliance (UDMR) and the national alliance of
the Hungarians in Transylvania (CNMT) included on their list Laszlo
Tokes (CNMT), Iuliu Winkler (UDMR), Sogor Csaba (UDMR), Szilagyi Zsolt
(CNMT), Kovacs Peter (UDMR) and Horvath Anna (UDMR). The union plans to
win three mandates.
As for the list of Greater Romania Party (PRM), a party with rather
extremist views, president Corneliu Vadim Tudor announced he will be a
candidate and he also invites football tycoon Gigi Becali, leader of
New Generation Party (PNG), to join him. Becali is currently under
arrest following charges of illegally restraining three people.
Independent candidates are also ready to begin the race for the
European Parliament. The daughter of Romania's president Traian
Basescu, Elena, announced she managed to gather 200,000 signatures
needed to run as an independent candidate for the EP and relinquished
the support of PD-L.
The presidential offspring declared on March 18 that she planned to
quit the party and build her candidacy unaided to shelter her father
from nepotism accusations and to prevent the party from choosing
between "her" and "intellectuals".
The president's daughter has been mocked by the international media and
described as "flashy" and unprepared for a political career. She used
to be a model before joining PD-L. She also spent some time as an
intern in Brussels, side by side with the a party colleague, back then
a MEP, Monica Iacob-Ridzi, who now is the sports and youth minister.
Romania will send 33 representatives to the European Parliament.
The county joined the European bloc on January 1, 2007, with the
promise to crackdown corruption and continue reforms in the justice
system.