Local elections are rarely like those held in Romania on 27 September, just two months before the country votes for a new parliament.
The headlines were ruled by the victory in Bucharest of mathematician Nicuor Dan, who was the new mayor of the Romanian capital, but across the country, several mayors and leaders of the county councils who once thought they had a lifetime task discovered without (Therefore, it is ironic that Ion Aliman, former mayor of Deveselu, the location of a NATO missile base , was re-elected by overwhelming majority despite his death in Covid-19 two weeks ago).
Thus, the elections have left Romania in a deeply altered political landscape, and the effects recommend that the ruling National Liberal Party (NLP) comfortably win parliamentary voting in early December. Great progress has also been made through the European Union, Save Romania Union (USR), which recovered from a setback in last year’s presidential election (in which its leader, Dan Barna, did wrong). The NLP and the USR now appear to be in a position to shape the next Romanian government. , lately the largest party in parliament, will have to prepare for at least 4 years in the political desert.
Nicuor Dan wins in Bucharest
In Romania’s capital, outgoing Mayor Gabriela Firea (PSD) paid for 4 disastrous years in force and was hit hard by independent Nicuor Dan, a math instructor and civic activist who fought for nearly 20 years with Bucharest administrations for the illegal demolition of historic buildings. With the support of the NLP and the USR, a party he founded before leaving after a referendum on gay rights, Dan won 42% of the vote against 36% of Firea. a remote third.
Dan has a difficult task to do, although he will be helped by the fact that the USR and the LNP will be able to offer him a majority at City Hall. Bucharest has fallen behind other Romanian cities in terms of infrastructure development, and thousands of capital citizens who have a centralized heating and hot water formula will have to dispense with both. Public transport is poor and not adequately funded, and traffic congestion is the worst in Europe outside Russia. Dan promised to invest in public transport, repair and expand green spaces and make the city more pedestrian-friendly. More importantly, he pledged to provide general transparency to the way the city is managed: a time after the announcement of his victory, he said his first task would be to order a full audit of the City Council.
It is an idea that Bucharest City Council employs up to 45,000 more people, more than the European Union, but no one knows literally exactly how many other people, or what many of them do.
Romania is much more multicultural
Perhaps the greatest wonder of the election was the crushing victory of Dominic Fritz, a German citizen, in Romania’s top western city, Timi-oara, who defeated outgoing Mayor Nicolae Robu (NLP) by nearly 20 percentage points. beacon of progress – the city that was the starting point of the Romanian revolution of 1989 – Timi-oara has stagnated in recent years under the idiosyncratic leadership of Mr. Rob, who, among other things, had an inclination to organize football matches in which he will be European Capital of Culture in 2023 and his population will expect Fritz to be able to mobilize the European budget well in the same way as another German Klaus Iohannis did so in Sibiu in 2007. . Mr. Iohannis was so successful that he became president of Romania.
There is more foreign good fortune for the RSU in Sector 1 Bucharest, the richest in the city, where a Frenchwoman, Clotilde Armand (who, unlike Mr Fritz, also has a Romanian passport), defeated Dan Tudorache. PSD.
This is the end of the PSD, but the desert waits
It’s a depressing choice for the PSD. Already shocked by the conviction and imprisonment for corruption of its Svengali-like leader, Liviu Dragnea, the PSD has not only lost the flagship capital, but has been defeated in a series of ancient stronges. Romania’s largest port, Constana, fell to the LNP while in Vrancea, in the east of the country, Marian Oprian, who for 20 years ran the county as a non-public fiefdom, was dethroned as head of the General Council.
However, it is too early to recommend that the PSD end up as a political force. His vote on the highest number of county councils, the highest productive policy measure for Romania’s local elections, has remained relatively well, and remains vastly the largest. party in rural Romania.
What is certain is that you will not be able to fill a job after the December general election. The LNP will be the largest party in the country, the USR’s STRONG pershapence means it will most likely give it a race for his money as long as they do not fight between now and December, the NLP and the USR will shape the next Romanian government.
USR will have to constitute more than a protest vote
The USR declared through the top Romanian political analysts as the biggest winner of the night, and not without reason. Founded in 2016, its stable upward trajectory, interrupted by Dan Barna’s disappointing functionality in last year’s presidential election, has been restored and his position as a Plus of his victories in Bucharest and Timi-oara, his aspiring mayor also won in the Moldovan city of Bacu and in the towns of Alba Iulia and Braov in Transylvania. However, while the party also made progress for the for the first time in rural areas, winning five village councils, it remains a predominantly urban party, a serious disadvantage in national elections as part of Romania still lives in the countryside.
But what the USR has controlled to achieve is to realign Romanian politics like no other party has since 1989. Su largely progressive schedule has forced the NPT to abandon (but not all) of its more nationalist and populist rhetoric. , while the activist-led base has shown that new political enterprises can be effective in Romania if they try hard enough.
What continues to hold the party back, however, is the lack of a transparent policy in some spaces (its greatest charm – for the young electorate in particular – is the fact that it is not the PSD or the LNP), when in spite of everything – perhaps faster than later: its green wing will oppose its more business-friendly elements. He also wants a new leader who can adapt to the dynamism of his base.
However, these are considerations for the day. For now, the RSU represents Romania’s most productive possibility for genuine change.
In Romania, elections can win
Jokes about the vote of the deceased have long been a feature of romanian elections, especially in rural areas where drunken ballot boxes and more than 100 percent participation have for many years been a key voting day. Deveselu, a small town in southern Romania, was extra yesterday.
Better known until last night as the ballistic missile shield that NATO considers important to protect Europe from long-range missiles fired across rebel states, it is now in the headlines as a city that elected a dead man as mayor.
The outgoing mayor, Ion Aliman, got 1,020 out of a total of 1,600 votes cast in yesterday’s elections, when he died on September 17 as a result of Covid-19: his death came too late to replace the ballots, which had already been published and when the result was announced, many others piled up in his grave. The election will now be re-elected.
This is not the first time that the population of a Roguyrian people has elected a deceased as mayor. In 2008, the vanquished Neculai Ivascu, who led the Roguyian city of Voineti for 18 years, was re-elected to office. In this specific case, Ivascu died of liver disease just after voting began on Election Day, but still won the election with 23 votes.
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