Asked if he could engage in the race for the election of the president of Romania as a candidate, the Minister of Education and Research, Daniel David, did not reject the hypothesis. It specified instead that certain conditions should be met.
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The name of the new Minister of Education and Research, Daniel David, former rector of UBB Cluj-Napoca, was also mentioned in discussions about potential candidates for this year’s presidential elections. Asked, on Friday, January 10, 2025, during a press conference, if he is considering running, the university professor stated that he would support, first of all, a candidate with a Euro-Atlantic orientation.
“In 2004 I returned to the country because there were two ambitions of the country: one ambition was the integration into NATO and the other ambition – the accession to the European Union. So I believe in a Euro-Atlantic Romania and for me it is very important that our structures, our leaders, keep this Euro-Atlantic orientation. I would be happy and support (I also supported as rector, you saw), those candidates who come with a Euro-Atlantic approach for the country”, David specified.
“I’d be happy to be someone else”
The minister revealed that he was asked what he would do concretely to support this objective and answered that he would consider the candidacy only if an essential condition is met. “When I was asked – And what are you going to do? – I said that I can enter into such a discussion only if there are analyzes that show very seriously that among those who would have a Euro-Atlantic profile (I can be criticized for many things, but I cannot be suspected of not- I would have a Euro-Atlantic orientation), among these candidates, I would have the best chancein the face of an approach that does not go in the Euro-Atlantic direction. Otherwise, I’d be happy for it to be someone else, but in the same way I said I’m ready if it should be me, but I’m not making a goal out of it. I do not propose and do not enter this way, for this purpose, in these discussions”, David said.
Asked what answer he would give if talks progressed and he was asked to run, the minister insisted that such a proposal would first have to be accompanied by clear evidence that he is the person with the best chance.
“If I were asked, I would ask why I am being asked, what statistical analyzes are there to show that people would like such a profile and in this profile I would have the best chances and if it is after that a political discussion to support this. If it’s just a political discussion through which someone asks you to do this I wouldn’t do it, because, I repeat, here too I believe in what is called evidence. It matters what people say. And I think that there are a lot of good politicians, with a Euro-Atlantic profile, who want to be presidential candidates and who think that they might be supported by people maybe even more than me”concluded the minister.
