Romanian presidential elections campaign kicks off on Facebook: Antonescu criticises Basescu

Luni, 20 iulie 2009, 20:11 English | Politics

Liberal leader Crin Antonescu launched his online campaign. He's in the run for the presidential elections this autumn, against Basescu, Romania's incumbent president. Antonescu started using Facebook to refer to Basescu's stirring up the Hungarian minority in Harghita (North Romania). Antonescu plans to be an active internet user, according to Inpolitics.ro.

"I saw the President challenging the youn g Hungarian minority, in the context which the Hungarian minority voted in favour of the Constitution at the 2003 referendum. The fact that his is trying to stern the youth's reaction is only because of electoral reasons", Antonescu writes on his Facebook in a Monday post. He referred to Basescu's visit to Harghita county, a region highly populated with Hungarians, that there is no room for local autonomy. Basescu saw the mass booing him.

Crin Antonescu's campaign strategy has a "campaign for internauts" chapter. The liberals want to mobilise the young electorate through open blog dialog, short clips and information on projects. Crin Antonescu did mention a personal blog on www.crinantonescu.ro but there is no post yet.