PSD presidential candidate Dancila fully aware it won't be an easy battle, pursuing message of unity

National leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Viorica Dancila said on Tuesday that the decision of the party's National Standing Bureau and National Executive Committee to name her PSD presidential candidate does her honor and renders her even more responsible, mentioning that she is aware this won't be an easy battle, because the party starts from a difficult position. "Today, the National Executive Committee voted for the presidential candidate, and in order to make a democratic decision we listened to the opinions of all county organizations. (...) They voted for the party chairperson, specifically for me, to represent the party in the upcoming presidential election. This is a vote that honors me, and at the same time renders me responsible, because I know that I won't step into an easy battle, I know it will be very hard fight, I am aware that the party sets off from a difficult position from the electoral point of view, but I trust myself, I trust my colleagues, I trust our power to mobilize, I trust that we will win the Romanians' appreciation, that many Romanians will find themselves in our messages, that we will create a wave of national confidence and that we can win this election," Dancila said. She mentioned that at the National Standing Bureau and the National Executive Committee meetings, presidential nomination hopeful Liviu Plesoianu only got one vote. "Even if Mr. Plesoianu was not present, because he is not a National Standing Bureau and NEC member, I proposed my colleagues to also vote for Liviu Plesoianu because I saw in the media that he wants to run and I considered that it is important that each of us gets support, to see the backing one enjoys in the statutory bodies. In the National Standing Bureau Plesoianu got one vote. Also during the meeting of the National Standing Bureau, acting chairperson of the PSD Bucharest organisation and Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea withdrew from the race and mentioned that for us, for the Bucharesters, for the Social Democratic Party, it is very important that we go united in the upcoming elections. I also asked for the same vote in the National Executive Committee, and Liviu Plesoianu had the same one supporter - [PSD Vaslui leader] Dumitru Buzatu," said Viorica Dancila. She emphasized that the party must stay united, and that consensus is much more important than the division. "I know that it is very difficult, but I am convinced that if we close ranks, our steps will be solid and we won't have just our electorate behind us, but also those whom we have disappointed and whose trust we will do everything in our power to regain. (...) We will pursue the same message of unity, a message of trust, a message for the majority of the Romanians to identify with. It is important to us, it is important for each individual organization, for each mayor in Romania, to prove that the locals believe in their mayor. In the localities where we don't have a mayor, the president of the organization must prove that he enjoys the confidence of the respective community to be our candidate in the local elections, and for us, at the central level, it is paramount that we don't take any wrong step and that we generate the same wave of credibility we had in 2016," Dancila concluded. AGERPRES (RO - author: Alina Novaceanu, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)