Nine hours they played ping-pong with the candidacy in Bucharest, 5 hours they struggled to get the doctor to withdraw on his own. During the breaks, Ciolacu tried to get Ciucă to understand and talk to him about the good of the alliance and the future of the country. Advised by liberals with political experience, the general held firm.
The marathon meeting was not all scandal and tension. The leaders themselves laughed at the situation they were in and persuaded each other to run. Mihai Tudose proposed to run for Nicolae Ciucă. When the liberal camp answered “yes, why isn’t Marcel running?”, he replied: “Well, Marcel has jobs.” For the Bucharest mayor’s office, all the names from inside and outside the parties were announced, starting with the members of the two delegations. When it was Sorin Grindeanu’s turn, he replied that he could not run because he did not have a floating visa. Reply from the PNL: “Let Bode (Minister of the Interior) solve it for you”. As the hours passed and Ciucă and Ciolacu kept retreating together, the nervousness of the delegates tired of the political ballet grew. A pesedist asked snidely “But how long will these two keep us here?”. Another six-seven hours, when Iohannis wakes up in Seoul’s time zone,” replied a PNL leader.
The scene of calling Dr. Cîrstoiu was also full of embarrassing moments. Every time Marcel Ciolacu asked him to withdraw, Cîrstoiu answered the same way: “I have no reason, withdraw my political support”. The prime minister appealed to all the arguments: from the “press lynching” that is decimating the candidacy, to the fact that these attacks from journalists will turn the election campaign into a discussion about the problems of the health system. The doctor was praised for the ad hoc conference in front of the University Hospital, in which he explained the accusation of impossibility, and for his ability to withstand the near-unanimous attacks of the media. “My campaign slogan should have been Resist ”, answered Cîrstoiu. The doctor repeatedly asked the coalition leaders if they had anything to complain about, and each time the answer was no. However, he was constantly pressured to leave the race himself and make the announcement “even through a small post on Facebook”. Cîrstoiu refused with the same argument: “You announce that you proposed me”. He finally left, telling the politicians to make a decision and announce him too. The final decision was not communicated to the doctor.
Around 12 at night, when it became clear that the liberals do not agree with the last two remaining options (to have no candidate and to support Piedone from the shadows or to find a very weak candidate, who would have led the votes to Piedone ), Marcel Ciolacu raged: “It was totally uncollegial that you threw Cirstoiu at me (allusion to Ciucă’s statement regarding the fact that the PNL learned two days before from Ciolacu about the doctor’s candidacy). The only option then is to run separately for the General City Hall and for the heads of organizations to run”, i.e. Gabriela Firea and Sebastian Burduja. Basically, the leaders of the coalition, these stability strategists, have arrived, after a three-month struggle, exactly where they started, with very high image costs and with a weakened alliance, which will very likely break after the European Parliament elections.
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