ALDE's Tariceanu: Me and my colleagues, we're not umbilically tied to governance

Chairman of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) Calin Popescu-Tariceanu believes that his party is not "umbilically tied to the governance," underscoring that he doesn't care about his Senate President office. "Despite the fact that I have the feeling of a political responsibility, me and my colleagues, we are not umbilically tied to the governance. Some of the colleagues in the PSD [the Social Democratic Party] made a wrong assumption, which got to my ears: 'the ALDE won't leave the governance because Tariceanu is the President of the Senate.' The Senate President office is an extremely honoring to me, but I am not tied to this aspect. My colleagues who are ministers [aren't tied to it] either, they weren't born ministers, nor I was born President of the Senate. During my political activity I held various high responsibility offices, but I haven't clung to any office. This is not the element that should lay at the basis of this analysis," Tariceanu told the TVR 1 national television station on Wednesday. He mentioned that some of his colleagues asked him to leave the ruling coalition, but the pro-governance arguments were based "on the idea of maintaining political stability." The Senate President argued that the consciousness of the PSD and the ALDE forming a coalition doesn't exist in "everyone's mind." AGERPRES (RO - author: Livia Popescu, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)