Mircea Geoana, the social-candidate presidential candidate, declared on Sunday evening that his gesture to visit businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vintu the evening before the confrontation with Traian Basescu was "a mistake". "It was a mistake and I would like to apologise to those that might have been hurt by my gesture", the PSD president said in an interview for Romanian TV channel Antena 3.

• "Visiting Mr. Vintu one evening before the confrontation was a mistake. But the fact that I have recognised it means I had nothing to hide. I could have lied, but it wasn't my style."

• "It was a mistake and I would like to apologise to those who might have been hurt by my gesture."

• "I swore than, hand on Bible, that I did not have any obligation to these people [Ovidiu Vintu, Dinu Patriciu or Dan Voiculescu] and it means exactly that I have no obligation to these people."

• "Maybe I lost something in that moment [during the confrontation]. it is possible. If it cost me in any way, it is also my fault. But I want to tell you that the real difference in at the voting moment was much higher, in my favour. The change of the situation with those 70,000 votes has been pulled off through unfair means, fraud, and I am convinced they will surface."

Talking about the Constitutional Court decision, Geoana used the opportunity attack its political opponents by calling them liars and claimed that the only way to end the political crisis was to repeat the second round of voting. "Repeating the vote represents the lowest cost. The highest cost is a non-legitimate president, a Government with an insignificant majority and with the same anti-crisis programme. The economic and social danger is extremely severe".

He added that people should look beyond the Constitutional Court verdict and that NGOs and mass-media institution should stress for "finding out the truth". He said he was ready to go all the way to CEDO and the Commission in Venice.

On UDMR joining PD-L in governance said it was a "disastrous solution", adding that "a non-legitimate president and a governance with majority only in the moment of vote represents a bad choice for Romania". But regardless the Constitutional Court's decision, the social-democratic leader seemed pleased to have won in Bucharest and in other cities where PSD never stood a chance.

Mircea Geoana said he expects to be kept PSD president, but claimed he would support another leadership if his party colleagues would request his resignation. He showed confidence in the come-back the party will make in 2012.