Marcel Ciolacu announced on Tuesday that he had ended his term as president of the Social Democratic Party 'with a heart full of gratitude and respect' for all those who were with him in this project.

'Today I took a difficult but necessary step: I ended my mandate as president of the Social Democratic Party, with a heart full of gratitude and respect for all those who were with me in this project. It was an honor to lead the party that led Romania to NATO. The party that opened the doors to the European Union. The party that recently put the last dot on the map of European integration, by entering the Schengen area. No other political force in this country has in its history achievements so solidly linked to national progress. That is why PSD remains the strongest Romanian political brand that we, social democrats, and all those who support us must be proud of and that we should never doubt,' Ciolacu wrote on Facebook.

He thanked his colleagues, noting that the PSD has 'extraordinary' people and has every confidence that the party will continue 'to be the main force of balance and progress in Romania.'

'I have had successes, but also moments when I have certainly made mistakes. But I have never wanted to harm my country and the Romanians. That has been and will remain my belief. I have put the stability of the country and the interests of the citizens first, even when I have been criticized for difficult compromises. They were difficult decisions, but necessary to avoid dangerous slippages and to maintain a clear, European and democratic direction for the country, in a period with a war on the border and multiple overlapping crises,' said Marcel Ciolacu, who remains a member of this great political family.AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Dana Piciu, editing by: Claudia Stanescu EN - writing by: Catalin Cristian Trandafir)