Sever Voinescu - Biography - Political Candidature

Political Candidature

On July 23, 2008, Voinescu published his final Cotidianul column, announcing that he had agreed to run as a PDL candidate for the Chamber of Deputies in his native Prahova County. This was in view of the 2008 legislative election, the first such suffrage in Romania to be based on mixed member proportional representation and electoral colleges. In that article, Voinescu stated: "I have decided to run in my native city of Ploieşti. The college comprises the neighborhood where I was born, grew up, lived through the first ages of youth and here my parents still live." Commenting on his motivation, Voinescu also wrote: "our politicians are trapped in moral and intellectual darkness which reaches the level of national catastrophe. I enter the arena because I want to bring clarity within the nebula."

In a 2008 interview with Evenimentul Zilei, he elaborated: "There are moments in life when one wants to see if one is capable of doing what he requires others to do." At the same time, he clarified that his choice to rally with the PDL was motivated by the party representing "the authentic Right", and by the National Liberals experiencing "a temporary drift", arguing that he found a post-electoral alliance with the Social Democrats "impossible stinking", whereas the National Liberal Party had the "moral obligation" of joining the PDL in a new coalition. He also pointed out that, although a member of a faction politically allied with Băsescu, he did not intend to placate the latter in his public statements, and criticized his party for resorting to "suspicious borrowings bizarre additions" in order to meet the necessary number of candidates. Believed by Evenimentul Zilei to be the natural choice for a PDL Foreign Minister, he spoke in favor of continuing a close cooperation with the United States, and justified Romania's traditional qualms toward Russia. After joining the party, Voinescu became an Administrative Board member for its think tank, the Institute for People Studies.

The candidature sparked negative comments from Jurnalul Naţional columnist Victor Ciutacu, who paralleled it with news that journalists Ungureanu and Cătălin Avramescu were also planning to run in elections as PDL affiliates. Although describing Voinescu as "a coherent journalist", Ciutacu alleged that all three were basing their actions on their support for Băsescu, and that they were thus comparable to lăutari singers, "who, depending on how good their showmanship is, are rewarded by the man sitting at the head of the table." In contrast, journalists at Gândul concluded that both Voinescu and Avramescu were electoral assets coveted by PDL leader Emil Boc, who, like other public figures from non-politicized areas, could bring help the party earn extra votes in the post-party-list era.

Voinescu won the seat in the 10th Electoral College for Prahova County. România Liberă also noted that his constituency was already favorable to the PDL. All other seats in Ploieşti were claimed by PDL members—Andrei Sava and Roberta Alma Anastase as the other two deputies, Gabriel Sandu as senator. In a January 2009 interview with Academia Caţavencu's Eugen Istodor, Voinescu stated his dissatisfaction with the post-election Emil Boc cabinet, founded around a PDL-PSD alliance at the end of failed negotiations between the PDL and the National Liberals. He argued: "I am not part of any decision structure within the PDL, so there was no reason for me to be asked . Within the PDL, there is a majority sentiment that it was the best of rationally possible solutions. The party is now in a Panglossian moment. But there also exists a lucid minority which continues to believe that it was not at all the best best of rationally possible solutions." He added: "For my case, of what was said during the campaign, as well as from things before, nothing has changed. I have no reason to believe that the PSD is better now than when it was impeaching the president. The new PSD elite is different from the old one only in the sense that it is more flexible, more versatile, more chameleonic."