Unexpected turn of events at PSD: Adrian Nastase withdraws his candidacy

Former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase announced yesterday that he would not run for president of the PSD (Social Democratic Party) saying he did not want to be a part of a "badly written circus". His announcement comes six days before the Convention to elect the party's leadership. Other leaders who had announced their intention to run in the election were Mircea Geoana, current PSD leader, Cristian Diaconescu, and Miron Mitrea, whilst the Constanta branch will support Radu Mazare for president, according to an announcement made yesterday by a branch leader. "I do not wish to lend legitimacy to this competition by participating to it, because it is a competition I don't believe in (...) I have too much self-respect to do that," said Nastase. "My only wish is that the party should not split (...), that we should have the necessary wisdom to recalibrate our message," said the former Prime Minister. Before withdrawing his candidacy, Nastase protested against the PSD Convention being organised at Romexpo, where Marian Vanghelie, PSD Bucuresti leader, organised the so-called "vanghelioane" - New Year's Eve parties open to the general public. The social democrats, however, agreed to hold the Convention there and voted in favour of the number of delegates to the event being proportionate to the branches' election results, a variant that would favour the current PSD president Mircea Geoana, according to social-democrats' calculations.