The interim president of the PNL (National Liberal Party), Ilie Bolojan, on Monday stated that the new presidential election should have as few candidates as possible, especially pro-Western ones, emphasising that he had discussed with his party colleagues and that solutions would be sought to find a formula with a strong candidate, supported by a coalition.

"Think about what happened in the current governing coalition when in the morning the ministers were working hypothetically in the Government meeting and in the afternoon the candidates were launching some pretty harsh mutual attacks. You can imagine, if this continues, with the four parties in the coalition and each with one candidate or two or three candidates, where we will end up. This means that we have to give up on what we have done so far, and let's name one candidate to see if he can get 200,000 more votes in the vote lottery, 300,000 more votes and maybe enter the second round to try to play this small stake ourselves. I think the best solution must be found and of course the fewer candidates there are, especially those who are pro-Western, who want to defend the values of modern Romania, the better, the more the quarrels between the parties will be limited," said Bolojan, on Digi 24.

According to him, an "integrating candidate" would show that the pro-European parties understood the vote that Romanians gave and would avoid the pulverization of votes.

"If an integrating candidate were found, who would integrate the electorates, who would represent both traditional Romania and Romania that supports families, but also urban Romania, we would certainly give the feeling that we also understood what the presidential vote means, the vote that Romanians gave, and certainly the coherence in action would be much greater, not least the chances because a pulverization of votes leads us again to some disputes and to a second round in which we do not know how things will turn out," Ilie Bolojan pointed out.

He was asked if he could be the candidate of the pro-European parties.

"I believe, as I said, that we should not rush to create a profile, we should not put up billboards to appear on them so that the world knows us. Now we must work to form a government as quickly as possible for our country and, as I said, we must find one or two people, conduct some studies as real as possible so that in the end we have a candidate who integrates these values. It is not about being one person or another and fighting over these issues and I did not come here to hold a position or to run. I thought that I would represent the Bihor County in the Senate, but I found myself in two days interim president of the PNL and now we are working to do what is necessary to show Romanians that we can govern responsibly, business people that they can rely on this country, which understands that it does not have to put any more burdens on them, but must reduce state spending and come up with candidates who can really generate hope and represent Romania in a real way. If we do not seek to maintain a dialogue and unite all Romanias through the candidate or candidates we propose, we have done nothing," Bolojan replied. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Marius Fratila, EN - author: Cristina Zaharia)