Corlatean says announcement regarding his candidacy had an incredible reaction from PSD grassroots

Social Democratic Party (PSD) Senator Titus Corlatean said on Tuesday that his announcement regarding his candidacy for the leadership of the party had a wide echo in the party's depth.

He was asked how he will attract his party colleagues to support him in the competition for the PSD national leadership.

"There is a wide echo in the depth of the party and you have to understand the history of this party. And we have gone through different cycles, and through difficult moments of crisis, this party, in its depth, has always had resources for renewal and redress. And beyond what may appear to be a form of agreements between bosses, cooperatives, in the party congresses the common people in the party generated change. (...) It's an incredible reaction from the depths, party members, mayors, elected representatives in Parliament, people who have been abandoned by the party, good quality secretaries of state who have been forgotten, have been thrown away," Corlatean said at the Senate House.

He added that it is "extremely encouraging that the party is reviving, becoming a living party and people are starting to manifest themselves."

"They were too quiet, they were too mimetic, they were too aligned with some commands given by the chiefs without criticising or without coming up with counterarguments. It is important to have this debate inside the party and to understand that these are not only the internal stakes of PSD to become an important party again, but they are Romania's stakes as well."

Corlatean also said that the election of the PSD leadership was made under a system that has both advantages and profound disadvantages, that inheritance system.

"In fact, it's like in government. When the Prime Minister resigns, the entire team that was invested, as a package, not on individual competences, resigns. In our country, they played with the statutes."

The PSD senator also said that the functioning of the governing coalition should be rethought, and rules remade and followed.