The PSD-PNL Coalition convened at the Government today to discuss Cătălin Cîrstoiu’s candidacy for the Capital City Hall amidst allegations of incompatibility. Despite ranking third in recent polls, Cîrstoiu trails behind Nicușor Dan and Cristian Popescu Piedone by a significant margin.
Sources told Digi24.ro that the PSD no longer accepts Cătălin Cîrstoiu in any form and insists on his withdrawal, but after two hours of negotiations, the two parties reached no compromise on whom should replace Cirstoiu in the race for the Bucharest mayor seat.
The liberals are considering going with their own candidate to the Capital City Hall, in case the doctor will no longer be the candidate of the PSD-PNL alliance, while the PSD wants the two parties to come with a common candidate, member of the party.
PSD-PNL candidate for the Capital City Hall, doctor Cătălin Cîrstoiu, declared on Friday that his mandate is on the table of the coalition and noted that he was “kind of alone in this pre-campaign”. “I would be crazy to go into a fight without support, of course,” he said, when asked if he would withdraw if coalition leaders asked him to.
Cîrstoiu admitted that he consulted at the Anemona private clinic owned by his wife, saying that all his colleagues who hold positions in public hospitals do so and that the OUG banning managers from practicing outside the hospital has created chaos.
The manager of the Bucharest University Hospital claimed, again, that he also consulted in the private clinic to help his patients, but also his medical colleagues who needed his expertise.
Insistently asked by journalists if he would withdraw from the race, he said that his mandate “was and is on the table of the coalition”, that he would talk with Ciolacu and Ciucă on Monday and that he could not continue without the support of PSD and PNL.