PM Dancila: I am not running for presidential elections, might consider colleagues in PSD, people outside party

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said on Tuesday for Adevarul live that she maintains the decision not to run for presidential elections but said that people from outside the party are also taken into account. 

Asked whether after the confidence motion vote she takes into consideration the candidacy for the presidency, Viorica Dancila said no. 

"Definitely, this vote and the support of my colleagues give me responsibility towards them, first of all. The fact that they actually lived this moment, that they got involved, that many of them sat in the hall, that they stood by the Government's and the prime minister's side, I cannot disregard that. As for my candidacy for the presidential elections, I have said it, I do not want to run for the presidency, but I will back the person who will be the best placed in the polls. I will stand by the candidate, woman or man, that we will have. I think it is best I backed a candidate and that the party chairperson is not the one to run," Prime Minister Dancila affirmed. 

As interim chairperson of PSD and candidate for a mandate at the head of the party, Dancila says that the chair of the party should not run for the Romanian Presidency. 

"The party's chairperson is actually the one who closes the ranks behind the presidential candidate so we have maximum chances," said Viorica Dancila. 

Asked by journalists whether this rejection of the presidential candidate is not a sign of weakness, Dancila said it is realism and winning chances. In this context, she also mentioned a candidate outside the party. 

"It is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign to show realism and we have to go with the one who has the greatest chance. I do not know if I have the greatest chance. Maybe they are colleagues in the party, maybe we are thinking of people outside the party who have far more chances We need to see how to maximize the outcome, how we get a result as much as possible, and we must not take the patterns of the past, we need to see what benefits us now and how we can look into the future," said Dancila. 

Dancila also referred to why she decided to hold a Social Democratic Party (PSD) congress, where she will run for the party leadership position. 

"I did not want the congress thinking of me. I can lose. I am executive president, so now I am interim chairperson, I have the leadership of the party anyway, I could have not wanted a congress, but I thought we should give legitimacy to a leadership, we have to come up with a governing program adapted to what the Romanians want, we have to come up with a political program," she added. 

She said she is not considering her resignation as prime minister if she loses the PSD leadership. 

"No, definitely not. I will not condition the two things, but I start from the premise that it is good for the party chair to be the head of the Executive, as well, because we have had this experience in which the party chairperson was not prime minister and we have seen, we are at the third government. I am a person of balance and consensus, but if my colleagues decide this, I will submit myself to the majority," said Viorica Dancila.