Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea has come back with explanations on her presence, next to her husband, and their two sons in the classroom. The Education Ministry’s guidelines forbid the access of parents inside the schools amid COVID-19 pandemic.
Although she had initially claimed that she had entered the classroom earlier in the morning on Monday, before the pupils’ and teachers’ arrival, now Firea claims that she has actually come to school on Sunday evening, “to check the sanitary preparations for Monday morning”.
“All parents and small children had access, in groups of 5, to take over the textbooks. Anyway, we went to school very early, for we had an to take the kids to the doctor and nobody was at the school when we arrived. We did not interact with other parents or pupils. We wore face masks inside the school.We took them off just for 30 seconds to take the picture”, the mayor said on Monday.
Today, Firea claimed that she had actually entered the school building with her husband, the mayor of Voluntari, Florentin Pandele and with their children on Sunday evening and had taken a picture for 10 seconds.
Electoral fight for Bucharest gets tougher
At the same time, Firea accused that mass media had launched a campaign against her, after journalists would have been “paid extra for this by the government and PNL”.
She also accused that journalists are only interested in vilifying her, instead of reporting about her opponent, Nicusor Dan (endorsed by PNL and USR-PLUS for the Capital City Hall), who, according to her, would have committed influence peddling for an interloper who had illegally built a restaurant and a house in a park.
“The candidate of the <Almost United Right-Wing> is making influence peddling and blackmail against a district city hall in favour of a controversial businessman- even considered interloper- due to his involvement in drug and human trafficking related activities, etc, and who illegally built a restaurant and a house in Tineretului Park on public domain”, Firea posted on Facebook today, also mentioning a recording featuring Nicusor Dan in dialogue with a representative of the district 4 city hall while trying to prevent an alleged illegal demolition.
In retort, Nicusor Dan announced he would sue Firea for defamation, arguing that all statements made by the incumbent Bucharest mayor against him are lies.