The Social Democrat Party (SDP) Keeps on Saying Good-Bye

The meeting between the Romanian president Ion Iliescu and the leadership of SDP from yesterday has been extremely tensed up. The president warned the leaders of SDP that his political future won’t be amongst them in case that they won’t be able to put together a real reform of the party.

The leaders of SDP, headed by Adrian Nastase (the Romanian Prime Minister and the leader of SDP) went yesterday to Cotroceni to show to Mr. Iliescu the recent measures taken in order to restructure the governing party. The Permanent Delegation approved these last week. Sources that took part to the discussions say that Iliescu has been extremely rigid to the members of the SDP leadership, including here the president of the party, Adrian Nastase. According to these sources, the president had reproached Nastase that he was irresolute when it came to the candidate for the presidential elections, this autumn. The president told him to take a decision in this way in order that the SDP could announce its candidate for the presidency. He has also asked that Nastase would visit the cities country to check the local leaders won’t undermine the image of the party before the elections. The president advised Nastase to use this opportunity to get close to the citizens such that the things that happened to the SDP candidate for the Bucharest city hall (who lost in the first round), Mircea Geoana, won’t happen again. They say one of the main causes of the loss had been the lack of contact between Mircea Geoana and the people.

Deadline

With a rigid tone, the chief of the state asked the SDP leaders to finalize the party reform by the 16th of July 2004, when a new meeting is to take place. The president asked that some of the vice-presidents would resign. He also criticized the recent leaders from Bucharest and Bacau that quit, Dan Ioan Popescu and Viorel Hrebenciuc. Ion Iliescu added that in order to reduce the number of vice-presidents some of the members having a negative image must leave the party’s leadership. By the 16th of July the SDP is to look for solutions to improve the methods of communicating its electoral message to the people. They should also establish the strategies for the upcoming presidential and governmental elections, as well as some governmental measures to be applied in the pre-electoral period. The president believes that the SDP message to the people must be improved as the image of the party has been undermined recently due to the large number of dismissals. According to the same sources Iliescu had been extremely harsh to the SDP leaders. "If these measures don’t appear we’ll head for separate ways in the future", Iliescu seems to have said to the leaders.

Official Statements

After the meeting the president’s spokeswoman, Corina Cretu, read a boring communicate, which denied that Iliescu had commented upon the SDP situation or the quitting of some of the SDP local leaders. "The president appreciated the way in which the local elections had been organized, the seriousness with which the SDP responds to the people’s signals, as well as the fact that the party is to take more care about the people and their needs. Ion Iliescu believes that the party needs a higher approach to the people and their needs. (…) It is necessary that this party would give an example of firmness against the corruption and the bureaucracy", said Cretu.