Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan intends to run the presidential elections in 2025

The General Mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, announced his intention to run for the presidential elections in 2025."We are at a turning point, the most difficult moment that Romania has had after the Revolution. The Romanians conveyed in the elections that we just had that there had been too much lying, that the politicians are pretending to solve their problems. There is a need for a fundamental change in the way the state responds to the citizens' expectations. (...) I announce that I intend to run for the presidential elections in 2025", said the general mayor of Bucharest on Monday in a press conference.   Dan, a 54-year-old mathematician and activist is serving his second term as mayor of Bucharest. He founded and previously led a liberal party that gave rise to the Save Romania Union — currently the third-largest party in the parliament.“I intend to run for the presidential elections in 2025 There are three big problems. The first – corruption and the functioning of institutions. There will be a tough fight between those who defend the public interest and those who defend the gang interest.The president must master administrative mechanisms and understand legal mechanisms very well. The second problem: Romania does not have a direction today.There are studies, strategies, but they clash or are very poorly adapted to reality. Romania has very important resources of competence in both the public and private sectors that the Romanian state has not accessed up to this point. This is the role of the president, who is not involved in the daily role of governance. It is to identify these competencies and organize them so that together they can propose the most appropriate public policies for Romania’s problems.The third problem: Romania is divided into socio-cultural categories in opposition to each other. I arrived here because their concerns were not understood by the rulers and the political class. Why am I coming up with this proposal when the people of Bucharest gave me their trust in the local elections and the referendum? Because Bucharesters cannot live well in Bucharest if Romania is not doing well. I will run as an independent candidate. I am open to discussions with pro-European parties to support this candidacy. We need a president who will ensure that the pro-reform direction that the parties are enunciating these days is truly followed in government activity. I am convinced that Romanian society will take advantage of this unexpected moment of reflection and will find the resources within its integrity to move forward, to change what needs to be changed,” Nicusor Dan pointed out. Dan announced he had informed the four parties of his intention to run for Presidency. “It is an analysis that will take time. It is a discussion that is being held in parallel with the negotiations for the formation of the government, the priority of the parties is the formation of the government. Today I came before the society and the pro-Western parties and made a proposal. I presented a hypothesis that seems to me the most appropriate. There are many scenarios and calculations, but I will not go into them now. It is a fundamental change in people’s expectations, which was manifested in the vote two and four weeks ago. If in the previous elections, the message of the people was that they would choose the least bad option, now the message was that this is no longer possible. I believe that this is the way in which I can help solve society’s problems. We will have an electoral campaign and I expect people to inform themselves, to see the different solutions that are proposed and for us as a society to choose what is best. There will be enough time for people to see the proposals of all competitors. It is absolutely legitimate for the four parties trying to form the coalition to be interested in other topics. It is possible that there will be interference in the discussions they are having. I am not and do not want to be involved in the negotiations on the government side,” he concluded.   His candidacy has been circulating in the public space even though, declaratively, he has said several times that he will serve two or even three terms at the Capital City Hall.   Several NGOs, activists and politicians have asked Nicusor Dan to run, considering that he won the local elections in Bucharest with 46% of the votes, and the mayor of the capital is the most voted person in Romania after the president.   Nicusor Dan has repeatedly stated that he needs two or even three terms at the City Hall of the Capital to carry out his development plans. The model of a possible candidacy as an independent for the presidency would follow the model of the candidacy for the City Hall of the Capital, where Nicusor Dan also presented himself as an independent. Later, he benefited from the support of some parties (USR, PNL) and also obtained a majority to support him in the General Council.   Romania’s top constitutional court on Dec. 6 scrapped a scheduled presidential election runoff after ultranationalist C?lin Georgescu — a fierce critic of the European Union and NATO — won the first round as a virtual unknown who had barely registered in national opinion polls.The court annulled the election after Romania’s security services said Georgescu had benefited from a TikTok campaign that resembled influence operations previously run by the Kremlin in Ukraine and Moldova.The government must still put together a lineup for the new presidential election, which will take place next year. 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