Romania’s presidential candidates

14 presidential candidates are getting ready for the start of the election campaign on the 3rd of October.

Valentin Țigău, 29.09.2014, 13:25

The Central Election Bureau in Romania on Sunday made public the final list of candidates for the presidential elections and their electoral logos. Of the 14 candidates in the presidential elections, 2 represent political alliances, 8 represent individual political parties, while 2 are running as independents. According to opinion polls, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Prime Minister Victor Ponta has the highest chances to win the race. He enjoys the support of the ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party. As president, Ponta says he wants to act as a representative of all political parties rather than as a president who always generates crises.

Trailing Ponta in opinion polls is Klaus Iohannis, the mayor of Sibiu, who is running on behalf of the Christian Liberal Alliance. He says he wants to change the face of politics in this country. The leader of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor, currently serving as deputy prime minister and minister of culture, wants Romania to become a powerful state in the region. The leader of the People’s Movement Party and a former minister in the Emil Boc government, Elena Udrea says her goals are democracy and development. She enjoys the open support of president Traian Basescu, who is nearing the end of his second term in office.

The leader of the Greater Romania Party, Corneliu Vadim Tudor is again on the list of presidential candidates, saying the country’s biggest problems are poverty and the fact that state institutions are faulty. The founder and leader of the populist Party of the People, Dan Diaconescu says he is running on behalf of ordinary people. Running as an independent, the former Liberal prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu has an ambitious goal: making Romania the 7th strongest country in the European Union. Another independent, Teodor Melescanu was until recently the head of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service. He says he wants to be a president for all Romanians, be they from the right or left of the political spectrum.

Monica Macovei, currently a member of the European Parliament, wants to maintain Romania on its western course. The list of presidential candidates also feature Constantin Rotaru, from the Socialist Alternative Party; Mirel Amaritei, from the ProDemo Party; Szolagyi Zsolt, from the Hungarian People’s Party in Transylvania; William Branza, from the Romanian Ecologist party; and Gheorghe Funar, who is running as an independent. Political commentators note that, in the absence of genuine interest in political programmes, voters will choose the next head of state based on their popularity. The election campaign ahead of the first round of presidential elections on the 2nd of November starts on the 3rd of October.