Adnkronos Bucharest, April 30 (Adnkronos) – "Restoring citizens' confidence and relaunching the economy". These are the priorities of Victor Ponta, candidate for the presidency of Romania, where voting will resume on Sunday, May 4, after the first round was canceled in December due to alleged Russian interference. In an interview with Adnkronos, the former Social Democratic Prime Minister from 2012 to 2015, who is running as an independent, then speaks of Giorgia Meloni, indicating her as "a model" for relations with the United States: "We too must act as a bridge between the two sides of the Atlantic".
“Voting will take place on Sunday, May 4. Voting will be to elect the President of the Republic, which in our country is an elective office, appointed directly by the citizens. Unfortunately, we are voting again for the second time in a few months,” recalls Ponte, who led the electoral campaign under the slogan “Romania first.” “As you know, last December’s elections were cancelled by the Constitutional Court, even though the real culprits of the political chaos are the traditional historical parties.”
Romania is going back to the polls after the Constitutional Court annulled the results of the December consultation due to alleged interference by Russia, which allegedly financed the social campaigns of Calin Georgescu, a right-wing candidate. “It was a serious mistake,” Ponta denounces, according to whom “we must always respect the outcome of the popular vote, whatever it is: Romanian citizens have been deprived of the most important democratic freedom, that of being able to choose their own president”.
"We must restore citizens' confidence and relaunch our economy. We must look to the future with flexibility and adaptability, eliminating the useless nostalgia that keeps us anchored to a past that no longer exists. Romania has all the potential to be a cutting-edge country, in Europe and in the world, but it needs far-sighted leadership", the former prime minister's program.
Whoever leads Romania in the coming years will inevitably have to do so by dealing with the European Union, but also with the United States, which Ponta defines as "the only ones capable of defending us from Russia, both militarily and technologically. We are witnessing a phase of tension between Washington and Brussels: fueling the conflict makes no sense, it would only benefit our enemies, who are many in the world".
Then the candidate indicates the Meloni 'model': "We must exercise the role of bridge between the two sides of the Atlantic, just as Giorgia Meloni is doing for Italy. We are one of the largest countries in Europe, millions of Romanian citizens live in other member states, we have rights to exercise but also duties that we intend to respect. At the same time, we must never forget the very close thread that ties us to the United States".