PD (Democrat Party) and PDSR (Party of Social Democracy) leaders yesterday got into a public dispute, after Traian Basescu and Petre Roman had declared that they would reject any cooperation with Ion Iliescu’s “perestroika” party, in an attempt to convince that the local elections’ results would not lead to rebuilding the old FSN (National Salvation Party).
PDSR maintains nevertheless its offer for creating a social-democrat pole. According to Traian Basescu, PDSR resorted “to the most wicked political game” by mentioning, during the electoral campaign, PD’s and PDSR’s belonging to the great social-democrat family. “I do not feel as social democrat as my colleagues from PDSR,” Traian Basescu said. In his opinion, PD is an “authentic democrat party,” attached to democracy and to market economy values, while PDSR is a “perestroika party” whose leaders practise “disguised communism.” Basescu also mentioned that, unlike PDSR, PD was acknowledged as a social-democrat party outside Romania’s frontiers as well.
The new mayor of Bucharest added that his electoral success and the results obtained by PD in general were possible due to the options of young people, who voted against PDSR. PD was preferred by young voters aged between 18 and 45, while PDSR got most of its votes from retired people. According to Basescu, PD received “a vote for the future” and PDSR “a vote for the past.” Basescu believes that young voters mandated PD to build the future.
In his turn, PD president Petre Roman said: “As far as the autumn elections are concerned, those who now think of themselves as winners are completely wrong.”