ALDE's Tariceanu on President Iohannis: I was hoping not to have a second Basescu

Chairman of the the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) Calin Popescu-Tariceanu criticised President Klaus Iohannis on Sunday, at the meeting of the Social Democratic Party's (PSD) National Council (CN), saying he was hoping for the president not to be "a second Basescu."

"I was hoping just like you, to have a president that would help us stop the erosion and degradation of the justice system (...) to find in Romania's President a partner for a strong Romania, dignified [Romania] in Europe, I, too, hoped, just like you, to find in Romania's President a balanced, politically equidistant partner, who thinks first of all about the country and, secondly, about a second term. I also was hoping, just as you did, not to have a second Basescu. We all can see what we have. In this guerrilla struggle, we also had important losses: two governments that fell in the first part of our governing, many of us were dragged in front of prosecutors or courts for acts that we didn't commit, but it's important that we haven't lost neither the compass, nor the belief that we can bring Romania among the democratic countries," Tariceanu stated at the PSD's CN meeting.