On Monday, PSD and PNL leaders failed to reach a consensus on setting the election calendar for 2024. At the negotiating table, PSD is demanding an agreement and decision on all four types of elections and the distribution of all coalition candidates. The bone of contention blocking the negotiations is, in fact, the candidacy in the presidential elections. The PSD wants Marcel Čolaka as the Coalition’s candidate in the December presidential election, while the Liberals want Nicolae Chuke. In this context, there is a very high chance that the local elections will not be combined with the elections to the European Parliament and that all the elections will be held on time. A new meeting of the Coalition will be held on Friday, February 16.

“The situation within the Coalition is complex and tense. The PSD demands a tranche of all candidacies, including in the presidential elections, instead the liberals are trying to make a decision only on combining local elections with elections to the European Parliament. The merger can be canceled and the elections must be held at the time specified by law,” political sources from both parties told HotNews.ro.

PSD wants to create an alliance based on the USL model

Behind closed doors, the Social Democrats demanded a court-registered political alliance with joint lists on the old model of the political alliance of Victor Ponta and Crin Antonescu, the old USL. That is, joint candidates for all European, local, parliamentary and presidential elections.

Officially, the Social Democrats do not admit that talks are blocked over a common presidential candidate, but unofficially, leaders such as Sorin Grindeanu and Mihai Tudose have been putting pressure within the PSD in recent days to split the election candidates. positions in the state, in particular the President of Romania.

On the other hand, the liberals went to a meeting with the leaders of the PSD with the mandate not to give way to the presidential candidate, risking refusing to merge the local elections with the elections to the European Parliament. “There were also discussions with President Klaus Iohannis. PNL does not concede the presidential candidacy to PSD with the risk of non-merger. We assume a 15% percentage in the European Parliament, and we will see what happens next,” liberal sources explained to HotNews.ro.

The PNL told the Social Democrats that they did not want to enter into an electoral union in the yard and proposed a protocol after the elections to the European Parliament, according to which the PSD would take over the executive power – the post of prime minister, the head of the Chamber of Deputies and the proposal of the European Commissioner.

Why PSD insists on nominating a presidential candidate

The main problem and misunderstanding is the presidential candidacy. The liberals want the presidential nomination and are willing to give the social democrats the rest of the administrative and executive power to get it. “PNL will not give up its candidacy for the presidency, even if the coalition falls apart,” HotNews.ro sources claim.

On the other hand, PSD leaders are putting pressure on Marcel Čolaka not to give up his candidacy for the presidency. It is currently unclear whether the SDP leader wants to participate in the presidential race. It is certain that within the PSD, local leaders close to Sorin Grindianu or Mihai Tudos insist that the party will provide a presidential candidate.

• The latest PSD-PNL negotiations. The bone of contention in the coalition and the stakes that Cholaku and Chuke want to make

Cholaku is also under pressure from Gabriela Firea to be nominated as the party’s mayoral candidate. The situation for the PSD leader is complicated in the context that Paul Stanescu, another strong player of the party, supports Gabriela Firea.

Political sources told HotNews.ro that some of PSD’s leaders want the partnership between Marcel Čolaku, Nicolae Chuke and President Klaus Iohannis to be broken, and that PSD could be the one to set the rules of the game after the 2024 elections.

Monday night’s Coalition meeting was the third official meeting in which the PSD-PNL leaders discussed the available scenarios but did not reach any results. The chances of implementing the scenario of combining local and parliamentary elections have significantly decreased.

A new meeting of the Coalition is scheduled for Friday, February 16. Procedurally, it will also be the last to decide on a possible merger for the European Parliaments scheduled for June 9, as there is no actual time left to amend the legislation.