Centrist Union leader explains 'modest result' in elections

“The July 29 elections were held in an extremely tense atmosphere and marked by unfair competition”, declared Vasile Tarlev, the informal leader of the Moldovan Centrist Union (UCM), at a news conference on Monday, Info-Prim Neo reports. The ex-premier has told reporters that a commission set up by the Centrist Union's national assembly on August 1 is assessing the reasons for the party's “modest result” in the recent elections, in which the Centrist Union ran on a common list with the Social Democratic Party and polled a combined 1.86 percent of the vote, at a threshold of 5 percent. “Depending on the results of the commission we will decide which should be the UCM's next step”, said Tralev, suggesting that the UCM might merge with another centrist party or as well dissolve and start anew. Tarlev also said the UCM and the PSD had demonstrated consistency in the campaign and regretted that they hadn't been “fully heard, understood and endorsed”. He went on to add that the UCM would still run in any future elections, regardless of the past failures. Tarlev declared that those who hadn't been active enough in the parliamentary campaign were punished, among them the UCM vice-president Mihai Petrache, who was expelled from the party. When asked by reporters whether he would accept to become again prime minister if invited, Tarlev said “being a prime minister in the present circumstances means being a kamikaze. “I believe in the current political circumstances at least the president and the prime minister should be politically neutral”, he added.