everyone wants to be mayor, but no one has a program for…

♦ The PSD-PNL alliance withdrew Cătălin Cîrstoiu (the head of the University Hospital in Bucharest) from the position of candidate for the General Mayor of Bucharest ♦ Well-known aspirants for high positions have re-entered the race – Gabriela Firea (PSD, former general mayor) and Sebastian Burduja (PNL, energy minister) ♦ Now the incumbent mayor Nicusor Dan (supported by the United Right Alliance), Cristian Popescu Piedone (PUSL), Gabriela Firea (PSD), Sebastian Burduja (PNL) and Mihai Enache (AUR) are fighting for the general mayor’s office. What are we voting for? No one knows, because no one presented an electoral program a month and a half before the elections.

There are “many called, few chosen”. If we believe the polls that are still being done in the pre-election periods, the end of the race will be between Nicusor Dan and Cristian Popescu. Nicusor Dan is a mathematician, he has a doctorate in mathematics obtained at the Sorbonne (Paris). Cristian Popescu got his baccalaureate at 32 years old. He added to his name Popescu that of “Piedone”, probably inspired by the successful series in which he played Bud Spencer (Piedone in the movies), the rote actor who beat everyone to the punch.

It was known for a long time about Dan that he would run to renew his mandate and, somehow, his schedule is known, looking back. Cristian Popescu’s candidacy appeared recently and he nominated his son to run for the City Hall of sector five, which he leads.

Gabriela Firea’s desire to become general mayor has been known for a long time. The same as about Burduja’s desire to run for the General City Hall. Both are leaders of the Bucharest branches of the parties they belong to, so they are entitled to aspire to more. And they are also pressured to do this, otherwise, their political ascension is buried here. It’s just that all the world’s regrets have the immortal “if” over them.

“If” Firea had been rated well in the polls, maybe she was a candidate from the very beginning. It was not. Likewise Burduja. The Cîrstoiu solution appeared when the polls said that none of the two party leaders above have a chance. And, later, the polls showed that Cîrstoiu didn’t stand a chance either. And it is explainable. Cîrstoiu is unknown to the people of Bucharest even though he is the head of a large hospital and dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Carol Davila University. Then the story of his incompatibility intervened.

After 14 hours of discussions, the leaders of the coalition gave up on Cîrstoiu, and the man left angry, rightfully so: “you called me to be a candidate, I didn’t come to you!”

When, after midnight from Monday to Tuesday, the leaders of the PSD-PNL coalition decided that it was better to go separately for the General City Hall – Firea for the PSD and Burduja for the PNL – it was barely dawn in Seoul. Or, Burduja was in the capital of South Korea with President Iohannis and he was sleeping, like any tired man after a long journey. So the coalition meeting was extended until the minister woke up to say whether he accepts the candidacy or not. And he accepted it, he wanted it for good. It’s just that his chances of winning are minimal. And Nature doesn’t have many chances either. Now, seeing that they have already lost the position of general mayor, the calculation of the two parties is to win the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest. Traditions do not die one by one. “Give me a council and I will change Bucharest”, once called Traian Băsescu, the former mayor of the Capital. Because a mayor without a council that is favorable to him has nothing to look for in the office. So PSD and PNL believe that, even if they lose the mayor’s office, they will control the council where they are rated with 40-45% of the votes. Because, at the council, these two parties run on joint lists. Voters will have to decide whether to vote for a mayor from the PNL or the PSD, but on the lists for the council, the PNL and the PSD are on a joint list. Who and what to understand from this?

The problem is that, beyond the political nonsense, no one comes up with a solution for Bucharest. How to get the Burduja candidate out of bed and ask him for a program for the Capital? Or Firea, who didn’t think about that when she was preparing for a five-year vacation in Brussels because she will undoubtedly win a position as a member of the European Parliament from the PSD?

Under these conditions, who would make programs for a city suffocated by cars, suffocated by pollution?

Bucharest’s serious problems, but which no candidate talks about

► The city is suffocated by cars. There are a million cars that go on an infrastructure made by Ceauşescu.

► The city is suffocated because the public infrastructure is on the ground: the subway comes every 10 minutes and even 20 minutes. The buses arrive at the station in 15 minutes and then people go with their personal cars, making the traffic even more difficult.

► Developers are building new neighborhoods. But not schools, because the municipality does not oblige them. The man goes into debt for life for 70 square meters and then sees that he has nowhere to send his child to school. He takes him in the car to the first school, which may be ten kilometers away.

► The law does not allow cars to be parked near the pedestrian crossing. In Bucharest, there are cars parked right on the pedestrian crossing and no one fines the drivers.

► Pedestrians have become the outcasts of society. The traffic law allows, on one-way roads, cars to be parked both on the left and on the right. It’s just that they are parked on the sidewalk, and people walking have nowhere to go.

► It’s cold in the house and in front of the building you read every two weeks that there is no heat because a pipe broke, you don’t know where. But the bill is the same.

► You don’t understand why you cough out of nowhere. Walk on Ştefan cel Mare Boulevard and look at the exhaust pipes of cars bought abroad for 1,000 euros and you will understand. In Paris or Madrid, such cars are prohibited.

Nicusor Dan

Cristian Popescu