The upcoming Liberal Congress, set for March 21, underlines the internal struggle for power, most newspapers note on Monday. Elsewhere in the news, local authorities in Pitesti block a 9 million euro investment.
Cotidianul reads that former PM Tariceanu and Crin Antonescu are counting their supporters each day: Antonescu received the votes of the Iasi group, in North Romania, under the lead of businessman Relu Fenechiu. He declared that Iasi delegates will fully support Antonescu.
At his turn, Antonescu said that he will offer Fenechiu a leading role in the party, perhaps a vice president seat. On the other hand, Tariceanu obtained the support of the branch in Constanta, South East Romania, lead by Puiu Hasotti.
Hasotti declared that he thinks highly of every candidate but unfortunately, he can only sustain one. According to an unofficial internal counting, Tariceanu would receive the endorsement from 517 candidates of 1,362. Antonescu announced that he would get, until now, some 500 votes.
Ludovic Orban, the undeclared campaign leader of Crin Antonescu declared for the newspaper that the balance between the two candidates is not favorable to Tariceanu so far. Some 450 delegates would cast a favorable vote for Antonescu while 120 for Tariceanu of a total of 570 validated candidates until now, Orban said.
Bogdan Olteanu on the other hand declared, as supporter of Tariceanu, that they are not making any estimations and Orban is lying. Moreover, he urged Orban to count the few votes he received last autumn when he ran for Bucharest Mayor.
Still in the Liberal camp, Gandul reads that businessman Dinu Patriciu will not endorse Tariceanu any longer even if, until now, Patriciu was one of his supporters. The newspaper reads that Tariceanu starts to lose his supporters to Antonescu.
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