Fourteen candidates in the presidential race
Fourteen candidates are in the race to become Romania’s next president.
Ştefan Stoica, 11.10.2024, 13:50
The most intense competition in the busiest election year Romania has seen in the last two decades is about the presidential seat. The first round of the presidential elections is taking place on 24 November and the decisive round two weeks later, on 8 December. Fourteen candidates are in the race, just like 5 years ago, 10 of them backed by political parties and 4 running as independents.
MEP Diana Şoşoacă, the leader of SOS Romania, a representative of the sovereignist, anti-western and pro-Russian movement, was banned for running by the Constitutional Court of Romania on grounds that her statements and behaviour hurt the constitutional pillars underlying the country’s membership to European and Euro-Atlantic structures. The Court’s decision sparked a wave of reactions on the political scene, mostly critical, despite the fact that Şoşoacă is seen as a toxic politician because of her aggressive language and the ideas she promotes. The sovereignist and nationalist movement is not, however, without a representative in the race for president, thanks to George Simion, the leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians.
Other candidates include the current prime minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, as the most prominent candidate on the left. Opinion polls show he may be ahead in the first round, and he is confident he will win the second round as well, despite Romania having elected a candidate on the right of the political spectrum for the last 20 years.
Things are however more complicated this year on the right. The candidate proposed by the National Liberal Party, the biggest party on the right, is the party’s not very charismatic leader and former prime minister Nicolae Ciucă. He is behind his party’s numbers in opinion polls and may not even enter the second round. Opinion polls indicate that the Liberals and their candidate are thus being punished for their government coalition with the Social Democrats, with voters seeing their attempt to distance themselves politically from the latter but without leaving the government as not very credible.
Also from the right, the candidate of the Save Romania Union, Elena Lasconi, the mayor of a small town in the south of the country, is convinced she will make it to the second round and is calling on the right to join forces.
Former NATO deputy secretary general Mircea Geoana, who is running as an independent, is another candidate with chances to make it to the second round. He says he has learnt from the mistakes of the past, an allusion to his dramatic loss of the presidential elections back in 2009 as leader of the Social Democratic Party. He talks about the need for change and says he is the most competent candidate in areas that are increasingly relevant in the current geostrategic climate.
The list of candidates for president also includes a former justice minister and foreign affairs minister who is now an independent, Cristian Diaconescu, and the former prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party Ludovic Orban.
The second round of the presidential elections ends the election marathon this year, which began in June with the local and European Parliament elections. The elections for the Romanian parliament will take place on the National Day, on 1st December.
