PSD's Dancila says winning presidential election, only way for her to resign chairmanship

National leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Viorica Dancila said on Wednesday that she has no reason to resign from chairmanship, and the only way that would be possible would be by winning this month's presidential election. 

Asked at a news conference about how long she will stay in office as the PSD national chair, Dancila said: "As long as I am endorsed by the PSD members, the 500,000 members, as long as we do not have a congress convention and free elections, as long as I follow a rising trend for the party." 

"I took the party from 22pct, then it dropped to 17pct - after the elections are lost this is normal. When I bring this party up to a level that reflects the power of this party, I am convinced that then there will not be voices clamoring to replace a chairperson for the sake or replacing, because that is not the purpose of PSD. The purpose of PSD is to win the presidential, local and parliamentary elections. (...) Maybe there are some who want to take over power even if the party is in the 10pct to be the chairs of this party. Our goal is to win the presidential election and the odds are stacked in our favour. (...) Why resign? Because I take the party to the second round [of the presidential election] and we will go on to win the election? Yes, there is a possibility of me having to resign: I win the presidential election, and I can no longer be the chair of the party," said Dancila. 

According to her, PSD did not lose the government, but had inside traitors, and said that the time had come for "this party to be cleansed" of them. 

"Chapter chairs no longer want traitors in their party, they no longer want opportunistic people, people working for their own person and not for the party. (...) I will lead this party to a better score going forward," said Dancila. 

She denied the existence of negotiations with Mihai Tudose or leaders of Pro Romania. "We cannot accept them in the PSD. Do we want to reward the fact that they acted against PSD? Whomever has such ideas, they should forget them. The negotiations are conducted by the chair, the leadership and the members of the Executive Committee," said Dancila.