Romanian PM says she is ready to run for president if the party wants that

Romanian prime minister Viorica Dancila, who is also the head of the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD), said on Thursday, in an interview with local DC News, that she will run for president if the party asks her.

“I haven’t yet taken this into account, but if the party asks me and this is the only solution, I will accept it,” Dancila said, according to local Digi24.

The ruling party PSD is yet to announce its candidate for this year’s presidential elections. There are several party members who would want to join the race for the presidential seat, among them finance minister Eugen Teodorovici, MPs Serban Nicolae and Liviu Plesoianu, and former defense minister Mihai Fifor. According to the local media, PSD also considers having a joint candidate with its junior ruling coalition partner ALDE, and this could be ALDE president Calin Popescu Tariceanu.

The PM said in late June that the party would order opinion polls to test the potential candidates and find out who would have the highest chances in the presidential race.

PSD has a difficult mission in this year’s presidential elections after the categoric defeat in the elections for the European Parliament in May and the incarceration of its former leader Liviu Dragnea, who was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for corruption. Current president Klaus Iohannis, who announced that he would run for another term, has the biggest chances to win the presidential elections scheduled for November.

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(Photo source: Gov.ro)