The governing coalition has decided on a joint strategy for the elections: joint elections and joint lists / Mihai Tudose: More than 60% of Romanians want consolidation of the elections / The final decision, announced at 7:00 PM

Rareș Bogdan (PNL) and Mihai Tudose (PSD) announced on Wednesday at 10:30 AM that the coalition has decided on a joint strategy for the elections, which will be validated at 4:00 PM in separate meetings of the PSD and PNL leaderships, and the final decision will be publicly announced by the leaders of the two parties at 7:00 PM.

„We met at 8:00 AM, had a very serious, in-depth discussion, and all agreed to go before our parties to discuss the principles and an important project,” Rareș Bogdan said in a joint statement with Mihai Tudose.

„We were waiting for sociological research on what Romanians want. It arrived last night. More than 60% of Romanians want the combination, and an even larger majority want continuity of governance and coherence of governance,” Mihai Tudose also stated.

„Today at 4:00 PM we have simultaneous leadership meetings to see what our colleagues think about our strategy. We will have a coalition immediately after, and at 7:00 PM you will have in front of you the two presidents from the two parties,” Tudose added.

PSD and PNL presidents, Marcel Ciolacu and Nicolae Ciucă, will make the public announcement at 7:00 PM.

„It’s natural to listen to our colleagues’ voices at 4:00 PM in the leadership offices of the two parties. Yesterday I explained to colleagues in Brussels, I talked with Manfred Weber,” Rareș Bogdan added.

What is known so far

• PSD and PNL have agreed on the combination of the European parliamentary elections with the local ones. The latter were scheduled for September. Through combination, both elections will take place on June 9.
• The two parties will participate on joint lists in the European elections. It remains to be seen who will top the list: an independent or a candidate from PSD or PNL.
• The Liberals also want parity on the lists for the European elections to be 1 to 1, but it’s hard to believe that PSD, which has almost double the polling numbers compared to PNL, will accept this ratio. In total, Romania has 33 seats in the European Parliament, which are divided based on the results obtained by all parties participating in the scrutiny.
• The electoral threshold for the European elections is 5%. Only parties that cross the threshold will obtain European parliamentary positions.
• Considering that this is a simple electoral alliance, it does not need to be registered at the Court, liberal sources told G4Media.ro. On the ballot papers, it will most likely appear as the PSD-PNL Alliance.
• PNL wants to have its own candidate for the mayor of the Capital and to participate separately from PSD in the local elections, liberal sources told G4Media.ro. According to them, there may be joint lists in some cities, but otherwise, the two major parties will compete in the local elections.
• The issue of the presidential candidate and a possible combination with the autumn parliamentary elections will be discussed after the June elections. PSD and PNL each want to nominate the candidate for Cotroceni, for this reason, it represents a delicate subject for the two parties.