Oprescu Competes against Nastase

Astonishment at yesterday’s meeting of the SDP Permanent Delegation. Sorin Oprescu announced his decision of competing for the executive president function, which is also the function wanted by the current president of the party, Adrian Nastase.

At the SDP (the Social Democratic Party) Congress in April, Sorin Oprescu will compete directly against Adrian Nastase, who expressed his wish of entering this race since last week. At that time, Nastase was saying that Ion Iliescu being his assistant would be "illogical and abnormal". This was his way of indicating the future president of the party. During yesterday’s Permanent Delegation, Sorin Oprescu answered the questions regarding him not running for General Mayor of Bucharest and the future structure of the party’s leading board. "I will hand in my candidacy, if this is to be part of the party’s new status", Sorin Oprescu stated for us.

"HAPPINESS"

Oprescu’s answer for the questions regarding his future adversary’s reaction was: "Nastase was happy for it" because open competition is productive for the party. This was the same principle the president of the National Council, Alexandru Athanasiu, was talking about. He said that Nastase’s reaction to Oprescu’s gesture was "natural" and that he had "no comment" to make. "There is no such thing as the function and the person. More aspirants means well for the party. Multiple candidacies is a good thing", Athanasiu said. He added that it is very good for a member of the party to announce his candidature beforehand.

SUPPORT

Athanasiu said there weren’t any other candidatures. However, it seems that this issue has been debated upon. Some of the members of the Permanent Delegation wanted to know whether a person wanting to run for a function in the future leading board needed any support. According to some sources inside the party, Adrian Nastase was asked this question because he publicly supported Ioan Rus’s candidature for the function of general secretary of the party. Nastase’s answer was, as expected, "there is no need for support", as long as he appeared as supportive to the idea of direct competition. Victor Ponta, the president of SDY (the Social Democratic Youth), is the other person who announced his candidature for the general secretary of the party. Another challenger could be vice-president Miron Mitrea, but it seems that several members of the party want Octav Cozmanca, the present executive president.

"THE CONGRESS WILL DECIDE"

After the meeting of the SDP Permanent Delegation, Adrian Nastase did not comment upon Sorin Oprescu candidacy for the press. Ion Iliescu did the same, but he made a statement regarding this later, at the Senate. "This is a preliminary process. Everyone in the party has the possibility of doing this since this is an announced principle", Iliescu said. The journalists asked him whether he would support or not Oprescu. Iliescu answered: "Why do you ask me this question? Why is this important? The Congress will decide."