POLITICS - August 28th 2004
Yesterday, the extraordinary SDP (the Social Democratic Party) Congress approved Adrian Nastaseâs candidature for the Presidency of Romania. The supreme leading board of the governing party submitted to President Ion Iliescu the invitation of rejoining the party after the elections this autumn and be one of the SDP candidates on the Senate lists.
SILVIU SERGIU
MISTAKES. In another matter of speech, the SDP president, Adrian Nastase, insisted that for the coming elections, the party shouldnât make the same mistake from the local elections, and that they should get much closer to the electorate, "they should discuss more with the ordinary people". "This is a mistake that we must fix. We are in a turning moment but we must make the people see that the party is changing for the good. We are the greatest and the strongest party. We have the respect of the entire world, maybe in the same manner our Olympic champions have been respected these weeks", said Nastase.
The SDP leader didnât forget launching a rough attack against the NLP (the National Liberal Party) - DP (the Democratic Party) Alliance, saying that "the liberal-democratic two-headed hybrid doesnât work because it is the synonym of algorithm, of the run of responsibility, of the self-importance, of the antagonistic interests of two parallel structures". Nastase sustained that the Alliance has a split leading board and that, "a country lead by the former Convention, the present Alliance, would be a weak country, with different leaders behind which hide two adversary groups with ambiguous members". "We propose the new SDP, they propose the former Convention. We propose a decided person, they propose two weak presidents", added the SDP leader.
THE HPR ALLIANCE
Talking about the SDP strategy for the general elections, the partyâs president, Adrian Nastase, appreciated that he does not see any obstacle in the way of the SDP - HPR (the Humanist Party of Romania) alliance continuity.
CRITICISED.
A meeting of the Central Executive Bureau has preceded the extraordinary Congress of SDP, when the Vrancea SDP leader, Marian Oprisan, proposed for the congress to forward a resolution according to which Ion Iliescu will be the partyâs leader after he wonât be the countryâs chief anymore. Sources inside the party say that Nastase seems to have criticized Oprisan because he launched this idea in the press in the day before the Congress.With an ironic tone, Nastase proposed to Oprisan to trust in the present president of SDP, because he knows better the partyâs interest and advised him to listen carefully to his speech during the Congress. Due to media strategy reasons, SDP gave up on the idea of announcing a President - PM tandem, in order not to diminish the media impact of the launch of Nastaseâs candidacy for the Presidency. The tandem, which sees Geoana as the future PM, will be officially announced after the pre-elections on September 5, when the SDP candidates for the Parliament will be set.
ACCEPTANCE
President Ion Iliescu stated yesterday that he would probably accept the SDP offer concerning his return in the leading board of the party. Asked about his answer for the letter submitted to him by the SDP Congress, the chief of the state said this would be a "positive" one. "This means that the idea of coming back in the party in whose founding I took part is natural. I donât even understand this agitation that appeared around this fact. Itâs a natural, human thing, and it is about the relationship between us. Generally I believe we ought to give a little up on this struggle that doesnât bring anything good to anyone" explained Iliescu.However, he stated that for his return in SDP as president there will have to be a Congress of the party, after the elections. Asked about the SDP offer of becoming the partyâs president, the chief of the state answered: "I will probably do. All depends on the following actions. But this is something we cannot decide right now. This is only an idea". On the other hand, the chief of the state admitted that he would probably accept the offer of being one of the SDP candidates for the future Senate.