At the zero-degree meeting on Monday evening, which brought Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană to the same table, discussions were held on several topics.
Marcel Ciolacu Mircea Geoană and Victor Ponta, at the restaurant, Monday July 29 Photo source Antena 3 CNN
“I there, together with Mr. Geoană, Mr. Victor Ponta, and other guests, with Mr. Tucă’s mother, so there were a lot of invited people, not too many, I participated in the birthday of a famous journalist in Romania. (…) Normally, when more than two Romanians get together, they talk about football and politics. That evening we also talked about swimming, but we did not enter into political negotiations”, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Wednesday regarding the discussions held during the meeting
The Prime Minister also said, in other press statements, that the meeting was a private one, and that “a had fixed menu from Mr. Tucă”.
Asked if political decisions follow after this meeting, the PSD president answered: “No, absolutely not. I make political decisions with my colleagues, within the party“.
Journalist Marius Tucă declared on Wednesday that “it was not a trap meeting” between Marcel Ciolacu and Mircea Geoană, and the two happened to sit at the same table.
Asked if during the meeting there were political discussions or about candidacies for this year’s presidential elections, Tucă stated that “PSD was discussed at some point“, and Victor Ponta spoke about the history of the social-democratic formation.
The journalist also claimed that the guests did not know about the other participants in the anniversary event and that the PNL leader, Nicolae Ciucă, was not on the list because he does not know him very well.
Former Prime Minister Victor Ponta stated, on Tuesday evening, that during the meeting they discussed David Popovici, the Romanian athlete who became an Olympic swimming champion, and that it was not a “political meeting“.
“Even if you cut me and put salt on my cuts I will not tell about a private meeting. It was a good friend’s birthday. I don’t know how the celebrant invited people, but it was by no means a political meeting. I think I stayed for more than two hours”, said Victor Ponta, Antena 3 CNN.
And NATO’s deputy general secretary, Mircea Geoană, present at the event, stated, for the cited source, that: “He was invited to Marius Tucă’s birthday”, and that he didn’t have “no political discussion with Ciolacu or anyone else present at the anniversary.”
We remind you that Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and Deputy Secretary General of NATO, Mircea Geoană, were surprised at the same table, on Monday evening, in a restaurant, together with other politicians, including former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, where they were invited by journalist Marius Tuca, on his birthday.
Moreover, between the Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and the Deputy General Secretary of NATO, Mircea Geoană, there have been visible tensions recently, amid the battle for the presidency.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu reacted, on Friday, visibly irritated by the previous statements of Secretary General Mircea Geoană, that it seems to him that it is “out of mind” that “a NATO employee should not answer to a member state”.
And the number two in NATO had previously said that it is not the prime minister’s business what he did in the North Atlantic alliance, but he must say what the PSD leader is doing as the prime minister of Romania, a statement made after Marcel Ciolacu had stated that he would want Mircea Geoană to make an assessment of the activity submitted to NATO for the benefit of Romania.
