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PNL supports candidacy of Nicusor Dan for Bucharest's mayor office
The National Liberal Party (PNL) supports the candidacy of Nicusor Dan for the position of general mayor of the Capital, in this year's elections.
The announcement was made by PNL leader, Interim Prime Minister Ludovic Orban. "PNL has carried out a broad sociological research at the level of Bucharest and at the level of each district of the Capital. Following this research it has resulted that all PNL candidates have the chance to win the elections for the Capital's City Hall, but we do not have this guarantee that they will win the battle against PSD [Social Democratic Party]. Following the discussions we had with Nicusor Dan, aimed at Bucharest's issues and the solutions for solving the Capital's big problems, I made the decision to propose Nicusor Dan as a candidate supported by PNL," said Orban, at the PNL headquarters.
He added that he will present this decision for the approval of the party's leading bodies.
Chairman of the Save Romania Union (USR) Dan Barna said on Thursday that the National Liberal Party (PNL) leader Ludovic Orban's announcement about endorsing Nicusor Dan for the City Hall race is "a great step forward for the prospect of a single anti-PSD [Social Democratic Party] candidate in Bucharest.''
"Good news - PNL has just announced that it endorses Nicusor Dan, the USR candidate for the Capital City Hall. The announcement is a big step forward for the prospect of a single anti-PSD candidate in Bucharest,'' Barna wrote on Facebook.
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Nicusor Dan, 50, is a Romanian mathematician and civic activist. He got two gold medals for Romania at the International Mathematics Olympiad (in 1987 and 1988) and studied at one of the most prestigious universities in France – Ecole Normale Superieure. He also got a Ph.D. in mathematics in France.
Dan returned to Romania in 1998 and created a new university on the model of French universities. He also started a civic association.
In 2006, he launched the Save Bucharest Association , a civic organization aimed at saving Bucharest’s architectural heritage, threatened by new real estate developments. In 2012, he ran for Bucharest mayor as an independent and got the fourth-highest score, with 8.48% of the votes.
In June 2015, he launched the political platform Save Bucharest Union (USB), with which he ran in the local elections in 2016. He got the second-highest score, after PSD’s Gabriela Firea. Moreover, USB got about 25% of the Bucharesters’ votes, surpassing established parties such as the National Liberal Party (PNL), and emerging as the second-biggest political force in Romania’s capital.
Encouraged by this success, USB joined forces with other new local parties that appeared in Romania’s biggest cities and launched the Save Romania Union (USR), which obtained the third-highest score in the parliamentary elections in December 2016.
Nicusor Dan then resigned from the new created party USR in 2017 after disagreements with other party leaders related to the USR agenda.
In 2019, USR decided to support Nicusor Dan in the elections for Bucharest mayor.