Romania’s ruling coalition on Sunday endorsed former youth minister Crin Antonescu as its candidate for the Romanian presidency, in the hopes that he will defeat a NATO skeptic and Russia-friendly independent in upcoming elections.
The NATO and EU member was thrown into political uncertainty after Calin Georgescu surprisingly won the November 24 first round of presidential elections. Declassified intelligence reports said Russia had interfered to manipulate the result and help Georgescu. The Constitutional Court then canceled the election two days before runoff. Moscow denied meddling in the election.
Mr. Georgescu is favorite in the polls for the rerun of presidential elections scheduled for May and pro-Western parties are struggling to find a candidate to beat him.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said Mr. Antonescu, 65, was their choice for the role. He said Antonescu, a former Liberal Party leader, has “the profile of a presidential candidate” and is “a capable, experienced, educated, honest and patriotic man”. He ran for president in 2009 and came third.
He is “a man with strong principles who knew how to fight for his values and who, at the same time, was able to say NO when it was the case.”
After his validation, Mr. Antonescu promised the Social Democrats, Romania’s largest party, that it would “have a partner” in him.
The cross-party support was an unusual move and a sign of the precariousness of Romania’s political situation, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and a Hungarian party rallied around Mr. Antonescu rather than field their own candidates.
Quoting from the film Casablanca, he said the partnership could be”the beginning of a beautiful friendship” which could bring a happy ending for a stable Romania after months of political turmoil.
Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan, a centrist, has also announced he will run for president as an independent.
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