Update: Heated Bucharest General Council sitting: Deputy Nicușor Dan – kicked out, Mayor Firea calls PNL counsellor ‘masochist’

Deputy Nicuşor Dan, former Save Romania Union (USR) leader, was kicked out on Wednesday from the Bucharest General Council sitting, after he requested to present his view on the shifting of administration of the Buzeşti-Berzei area to the District 1 Street Administration and to the RATB.

Orlando Culea, chairman of the sitting, said Nicuşor Dan had not complied to the General Council’s regulations and is not allowed to address the sitting, but the USR counsellors could speak instead, hotnews.ro informs.

As Nicusor Dan started to address the sitting, the chairman of the Council demanded that Dan to be kicked out from the room.

A security guard came to Nicusor Dan and accompanied him to the exit.

Nicusor Dan said he would file a criminal complaint against the chairman of the sitting because the law allows him, as deputy, to attend and address the sitting.

“The senators and deputies have the right to attend the county or local council meetings, to say what they want. I made a request two days ago, I submitted it to the registry, and I wanted to take the floor, as the law allows me. The chairman of the sitting says the Council’s regulation is more important than the law, which is a legal aberration,” Nicusor Dan said.

Mayor General Gabriela Firea – colourful language

At the beginning of the General Council sitting, Bucharest Mayor, Gabriela Firea said that she would sue the counsellors who do not vote for the delegation of public services to the municipal companies. Firea addressed PNL counsellor, Ciprian Ciucu, who was trying to speak, calling him ‘agitated gentleman’, telling him that he should be ashamed of the denigration he has posted on Facebook, adding that she would publish a list of all his relatives and friends working in the City Hall and in the subordinated institutions.

“I want to tell you from the very beginning that I will not respond with the same violence in language and unfairness, as some of my colleagues in the opposition have done. (…) Why do our fellow opposition colleagues oppose the founding of companies? The municipalities led by Liberal mayors have set up many companies, for years now and I congratulate the former PNL mayors …” Gabriela Firea said. After the intervention of Counsellor Ciprian Ciucu, she continued: “Yes, Mr. Pandele too (her husband – our note). As you are obsessed with me… but I do not believe you’re a masochist, so I’ll present you to my husband,” Firea said.

Ciprian Ciucu tried to address the sitting at the very beginning, but Mayor Firea asked him to comply to the Council regulation.

PNL counsellor Cristian Olteanu responded to the accusations, saying that the difference between the commercial companies set up by PNL and those set up by PSD is transparency. Olteanu requested that the draft decisions are removed from the council’s agenda.

The USR group in the council also called for the draft documents to be removed and debated.

Although both opposition groups have requested this, Mayor Gabriela Firea, as initiator, has refused, saying that the autonomous administrations have been ‘infested’ by PNL.

Transfer of several public services to the new municipal companies, approved

The Bucharest General Council has approved, on Wednesday, the delegation of several services from the Bucharest City Hall to the municipal companies. Just before the sitting, the City Hall withdrew the annexes on the institutions’ patrimony, so that the draft documents could be voted by simple majority.

The draft documents on delegation of services otherwise needed two thirds of the city hall counsellors votes. The City Hall has thus decided to withdraw the annexes and succeeded in getting the approval.