According to the sources, Stanescu announced his resignation during the party’s executive committee meeting on Friday, without providing any reasons for his decision.
Other party sources told MEDIAFAX that the former minister disagreed with Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, the party’s interim leader, over when to appoint a new full-time party leadership. While Stanescu would have wanted a PSD national congress organized after the presidential elections scheduled for late 2019, Dancila insisted in her speech during the meeting on holding a party leadership contest as soon as possible.
Romanian social-democrats are continuing a series of meetings set to decide their party’s future on Friday, less than two weeks after they lost both the European Parliament elections and their former chairman, Liviu Dragnea, who was sentenced to prison for corruption offences.
Paul Stanescu had been appointed as interim executive chairman during a similar executive committee meeting held last week.