Deputy Secretary General of NATO Mircea Geoană told Digi24 that the representatives of the current coalition are trying to say “we are us and without us it is not possible”. He emphasized that there has never been a situation where the candidates of the major parties were not known five months before the elections.
Mircea Geoană was asked, on Sunday, on Digi 24, how he relates to the PSD led by Marcel Ciolacu. “I was the president of this party. I worked day and night. I am a very serious man. When I’m in a situation, I do my duty to the end. I still have a strong affection for the PSD electorate. I have many friends in PSD and other political parties. The way they organize themselves or the way they operate now in politics is their problem and it is the problem of the PSD and the electorate to decide whether they are doing a good job or not. I don’t give up on what I’ve done in my life. I was there, I believe in those values, I don’t have any kind of problem with vindictive memories from the past, I actually consider that it was a period of my political maturation. I learned a lot doing politics at a high level in Romania. I also learned from mistakes. My departure from Romanian politics also helped me, and if I am here today, a leader, I think, much more solid, much more settled, much wiser, I think, it is also because I had this experience. I don’t forget the beautiful things I did with those I worked with for five years”, declared Geoană.
He was asked if he would accept to be the candidate supported by the PSD-PNL alliance, if he were to run for the presidential elections. “I don’t know, it’s their problem what calculations they make.I see that they announce common candidates, I don’t know what they did, like in Bucharest, common candidates – it’s their problem. I think that the Romanians are less interested in the political game, I think they are making a mistake by trying to give the impression that they want to end the game. This is the feeling that I feel as a citizen and not as the head of NATO”, said Geoană.“I feel that they are trying to block the game, to say: it is us and only us and only us and without us it is not possible. It can be done without them. I can’t predict what will be decided by the locals, probably they have to decide as well.Never in the post-December history have we had a situation where five months before the presidential elections you don’t know the candidates of the major parties in Romania”, he added.
Also asked if he would accept a discussion on this topic with the leaders of the alliance, Marcel Ciolacu and Nicolae Ciucă, Geoana replied: “I don’t have any kind of problem with anyone, I don’t have any kind of issue, but I know one thing. That the work, as it is organized now, is no longer useful for our country and we must make a leap and an important transformation of the way we do politics. Whoever is willing to participate in this healthy, necessary, mandatory effort for Romania is my friend and possible ally. But just for a political game, I would not be interested in political games. I am not interested in anything other than the interest of the country, my people, this country, respect for Romania”.
Questioned about the event that NATO should have organized in Romania, but which was cancelled, NATO deputy chief said: “We did not cancel it. We didn’t cancel it because it was a very good decision, I think, someone from the south of the eastern flank, Romania, Sweden, the most recent member, And the United States in Florida will be a very, very, very big event. This very beautiful, transatlantic triangle, the newcomer, Romania is an important country, my colleagues chose Romania because Romania is an important country, NATO. Someone from Bucharest, probably scared by the shadow of Mircea, I don’t see any other explanation, at least that’s how it appeared in the media, that they are afraid that I’m using NATO to do I don’t know what in Bucharest. It would have been an extraordinary opportunity for the Romanian leaders, because for them it was this platform. And for the young people in Romania to be seen as beautiful as they are and as smart as they are, to be seen by all their friends from this huge alliance. If they decided not to do it, it’s their problem. It’s a great pity, it’s a missed opportunity”.
At the same time, the deputy secretary general of NATO, told Digi24 that he is not campaigning on the Alliance’s back and that he will decide whether he will run for president after he finishes his mandate.
“Do you think that someone from NATO is going to enter this embarrassing game that some at home are trying to play in this area? I am not campaigning on NATO’s back. If the world appreciates me, appreciates me for who I am, for what I have done in my life and if after I finish my job at NATO I decide, as I am more and more inclined to do, to come back and serve this is how I have done my country all my life, I will do that at the right time, in perfectly transparent conditions and without any ambiguity”, Geoană explained.
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