PM Citu on USR PLUS elections: voters penalized those who withdrew party from government team

Prime Minister Florin Citu commented, on Thursday, in Ramnicu Valcea, the result of the USR PLUS (Save Romania Union, Freedom, Unity, Solidarity Party) elections, stating that it was a "penalty" given for those who removed this party from government, agerpres reports.

"As far as the USR PLUS elections are concerned, I do not see a surprise here, it is clear that it the voters gave a penalty to those who removed USR PLUS from the government and joined AUR (Alliance for the Union of Romanians). This is how I see things," said Florin Citu, when asked how he commented on the result of the first round of elections for the USR PLUS top job.

The head of Executive reaffirmed that the Liberals will not ask USR PLUS to return to the ruling coalition.

"I told you that on Monday they will talk to me as president of the PNL (National Liberal Party), and we are not going to ask USR PLUS to come back in the government team," Citu said.

USR PLUS co-chair Dacian Ciolos collected the most votes in the first round of the online elections for the party leadership.

USR PLUS co-chairs Dacian Ciolos and Dan Barna are going to the second round of elections for the party's leadership, announced on Thursday the party's spokesman, Ionut Mosteanu. According to him, Dacian Ciolos obtained 15,111 votes (46%), Dan Barna - 14,404 votes (43.9%), and Irineu Darau got 3,300 votes (10.1%).