UPDATE: Liberals approved voting on listsLiberal leader Antonescu: I've got a trust capital. Where do I invest?

The Liberal Party Congress started today, at the Parliament House. The 1400 delegates will vote statute modifications and tomorrow they will choose their new leadership. Liberal leader Antonescu explained why the congress was necessary.

UPDATE

The Liberal Congress approved voting on lists. Delegates voted for the modifications proposed by Crin Antonescu. On Sunday, Liberals will chose their leader and his team. Today’s meeting was marked by harsh declarations of the main counter candidates to the party’s leadership.

6:20PM 1083 for voting on lists, 258 against. Antonescu declared that he will run for the party’s leadership position

5:30PM Voting started on the statute

5PM Ludovic Orban

Irrespective of what you might think, I will run against Antonescu
I have been asked whether I will win or not and my answer is that I have already won because I am right and the great majority of Liberals do not agree with this collectivist system
Even if I do not win, I want you to have an alternative

Here are Antonescu’s main declarations:

I thought it was necessary to call a congress after Presidential elections so that all members can decide who is best suited to lead the party

I wanted to put forward a complex political program, a motion that brings important changes to the statute

With the risk to lose my function, I called the congress to validate democratically some changes

I assume the risks of a formula that arises dissatisfaction

There is nothing more democratic than put forward my option

The proposals to the statute are open to public debate

The Liberal Party has a tough mission because it needs to be pragmatic and idealist

I have the obligation to put forward a project the means and political instruments to serve the ideals of the party

I truly believe that after these elections we should realize that there is a hope and that I managed due to my sincerity, message and our decisions to raise the trust, hope and sympathy.

I got a capital of hope, trust and expectation and I asked myself how do I use this capital, as leader of the Liberal Party. I ask you to help me invest it in this project.

13:00 debates start on the statute

Calin Popescu Tariceanu’s main declarations

We risk to be regard as Mircea Geoana was seen at the Congress where the colleagues fired him because he promised the same thing to more people and could not fulfill his promises

I urge you to take into account a series of essential elements in politics: this is a statute that is anything but democratic. If this statute would have functioned in the party, Antonescu could not have been elected President because he would not have been able to pass Stolojan

I do not believe that Antonescu’s proposal is what the party needs

We do not vote a project, we vote something more than a statute

We approve a project that will change eventually? I am sorry to say that some are trying to embellish something ugly

I expected the congress to debate

I believe that we need to consider that in Romania there are 5 million retired personnel and that we need to take a serious position on the subject. I never heard the party’s president to take a stand on this matter