Ludovic Orban: No winning team to be elected on September 25, but PNL chairman

Liberals' leader Ludovic Orban told private broadcaster B1 TV on Monday evening, that no "winning team" is being elected at the PNL congress on September 25, but the party chairman, in a competition in which the current chairman and Prime Minister Florin Citu are participating, agerpres reports.

"I was humble enough not to put the 'winning team', although as PNL chairman I led the PNL team to victory, to winning. Only those who have 'blinders on' and do not want to see that thing do not see the obvious. The obvious is very clear. I took the party in an electoral disaster in the 2016 parliamentary elections, in which the party garnered 20 percent and the PSD [the Social Democratic Party] won 46.5 percent, with a representation of almost 48 percent in the Romanian Parliament. Untrustworthy party, demoralized, quite divided, with a lot, so to speak, problems gathered in its midst and through an enormous effort that I made, together with my colleagues, I still restored confidence in victory and I achieved electoral successes that no one expected," said Ludovic Orban.

"My candidacy is at the PNL's disposal. Anyone who thinks rationally knows that no 'winning team' is being elected on September 25. It is the PNL chairperson that is being elected at the congress on September 25. It is a competition between me and Florin Citu. So my candidacy must be analyzed, who I am, what I have done for PNL, what I am able to do for PNL, to what extent I meet the requirements that are fundamental to ensure a fair and successful leadership of PNL and to what extent my opponent is comparable to me in this race," Orban stressed.

The PNL leader specified that this a very high-stakes competition, a game in which the winner "takes it all".