Democratic Left Foundation launches in Bucharest

The Democratic Left Foundation (FSD) was launched on Friday in Bucharest in the presence of national leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Victor Ponta, Chairman of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) Massimo D'Alema, PSD Executive Chairman Liviu Dragnea and over 150 guests from the academia, civil society and political quarters.

Photo credit: (c) Liviu ?OVA / AGERPRES PHOTO

The FSD's mission is to strengthen the left-wing messages in Romania, uniting the country's voices that claim to embrace left-wing values, and raising up against the intellectual hegemony of the right-wing. Social equilibrium is one of the main principles underpinning FSD.

"The Democratic Left Foundation is a speech platform for left-leaning intellectuals of Romania," project initiator Victor Negrescu told the opening of the event.

He said FSD sets mainly to promote the left-wing values and principles and create a framework that favours real ideological and thematic debates that will also regard public policies, particularly social policies.

Italy's former Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema talked about the values of the European Left. "The European Commission should be political in nature and promote genuinely European values instead of the values of just one party," he said.

Ponta said in his turn that Romania has more left-leaning people than initially thought. "I congratulate Victor [Negrescu] and all the colleagues that had this initiative, because there is much need of securing a framework for debates that touch on left-wing values and actual projects. (...) Europe needs left-wing projects," the PSD national leader said.

He added that democracy means more than the parties that call themselves of the Left or Social...