Ludovic Orban will be the National Liberal Party’s candidate for Bucharest City Hall, realitatea.net reports. The PNL Bucharest proposal must be validated by the party leadership.
Former candidate Cristian Busoi seems to have been erased from the list for the June local elections. Internal opinion polls showed PNL should nominate Ludovic Orban for the capital’s city hall.
The opinion polls considered also as candidates Cristian Busoi, Adriana Saftoiu and Catalin Predoiu.
Ludovic Orban was deputy mayor with the Bucharest City Hall and ran in 2008 for the top office without winning.
“I was deputy mayor, I am aware of the capital’s problems. I ran in 2008 having an electoral programme considered at the time as being the best one among the candidates; I did a lot of things for Bucharest as deputy mayor and as Transport Minister as well,” Orban said.
“Behind my candidature there is a whole life labouring in the cause of community. I am ready to take the next steps – the validation vote by the Liberal party leadership and the validation within the party’s National Politic Bureau (…) I joined the race for the Capital City Hall (…) for Bucharest needs a person with vision like me,” Orban added.
Cristian Bușoi’s candidature for the Bucharest City Hall got off to a bad start in January, when he presented his projects for the Capital city by using images of the Colectiv club, where a devastating fire killed 63 people and left other 15o injured, but also black and white photos illustrating the consequences of the 1977 deadly earthquake.
“Bucharest, wake up!” was the message displayed on the banner used for the project launch.
MEP Cristian Bușoi explained he had chosen to present images of the Colectiv club and of the 1977 earthquake following a debate with his communication team.
“If we remind people of the drama of 1977 and the one of 2015, they will understand that we are running out of time and that they must act,” the Liberal candidate said.
While displaying images related to the Colectiv fire, Bușoi also unveiled his plans for the Capital city, namely the intention to build “the biggest emergency hospital in Eastern Europe in Bucharest” that would be useful in the case of tragedies such as the Colectiv fire, as well as to consolidate the buildings with a high seismic risk, which in the case of an earthquake “would possibly multiply the Colectiv tragedy by tens times or more.”
Following criticisim in the mass media and on social media channels, expressed by his political foes but also from inside the Liberal Party, Cristian Bușoi apologised for using images with the Colectiv tragedy in the campaign promoting some projects for Bucharest, saying he understands the criticism and that he has never intended to use this tragedy in an electoral exercise. “I apologise to all those who were hurt by this association,” Bușoi wrote on his Facebook account.
PSD’s Dragnea: Orban’s candidacy is favourable for us
PSD President Liviu Dragnea said on Monday that his party is favoured by Ludovic Orban’s candidacy for the city hall, because he has a low electoral capital in Bucharest, as proved in 2008.
“It’s an advantage for us. He got 11-12% when he ran last time. He is a serious candidate, no question about it,” Dragnea said ironically.
“Our candidate will be announced soon. As I said, we are within the two-week interval, the deadline is not over,” the PSD leader said.
PSD Bucharest leader, Gabriela Firea: It’s not a surprise, we’re not impressed
The PSD Bucharest organisation is not surprised and not impressed by the PNL announcement regarding Orban’s candidacy. Gabriela Firea, PSD’s favourite to run for the city hall, said on Monday PSD is not impressed by the swap between Cristian Busoi and Ludovic Orban. “It’s their problem to name a candidate, we can only take note of it,” Firea said.
If she would run or not for the Bucharest city hall, it’s certain PSD will conduct a positive, civilised campaign and will not attack its adversaries.
“PNL-PD has remained in the same style of negative campaign and will focus on the ‘disaster’ left in Bucharest by Sorin Oprescu,” Firea said.