Marian Lupu, Pavel Filip and Andrian Candu are the favorite Democrats to become the party’s pick for president, Dumitru Diacov told Radio Europa Libera in an interview. Asked whether he himself could be the nominee, the honorary president of the Democratic Party said: “could be, but it’s for the party to decide”.
Talking about the qualities of the party’s incumbent president Marian Lupu, Diacov described him as “an experienced person”, while Prime Minister Pavel Filip and Speaker Andrian Candu were described as “people who have demonstrated their worth”.
“The Cabinet and Mister Filip are becoming increasingly convincing with each day passing. I think the party will get together and discuss the issue very calmly. There’s no problem whatsoever, the party has potential nominees and one will be eventually selected to run for president”, said Dumitru Diacov.
Commenting on whether it would be a good idea for the governing coalition to nominate a common candidate, Dumitru Diacov said it’s unlikely to happen. “The coalition is composed of a number of parties and each of them wishes to demonstrate something. Some parties will participate in the elections just to position themselves on the political landscape and not necessarily to win.”
As concerns the party’s senior vice president, Dumitru Diacov said he would endorse Vlad Plahotniuc for “some elections in the future”. “I was sincere when I said back then that it would be a good idea for Mister Plahotniuc to become Prime Minister, so that people could judge him by his merits. You did good, you deserve applause. You did bad, we won’t vote for you anymore and that’s the deal. That’s how democracy works”.
So far, Igor Dodon of the Socialist Party and Iurie Leanca of the European People’s Party have voiced their intention of entering the presidential race, and so have the independent MP Valeriu Ghiletchi and the activist Oleg Brega. Renato Usatyi said his Our Party could be represented by the journalist Dmitri Chubashenko.
