After the leaders of the PSD-PNL coalition took the decision to withdraw the joint candidate Cătălin Cîrstoiu and go with separate candidates, in the person of Gabriela Firea and Sebastian Burduja, a new problem seems to have appeared in the PSD camp: how to recover Gabriela Firea electorate migrated to Cristian Popescu Piedone.
Thus, against the background of uncertainties related to the loyalty of the social-democratic electorate, Marcel Ciolacu tries the option of negotiating the withdrawal of Popescu Piedone from the race for the mayor of the Capital. Even so, the current mayor from Sector 5 does not seem to be swayed by Ciolacu and remains in the race.
Political scientist Cristian Pîrvulescu, dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences within SNSPA, is of the opinion that PSD has nothing to offer mayor Popescu Piedone in order to give up his candidacy.
“What can be offered to Cristian Popescu, said Piedone. The Town Hall of Sector 5? Really. It is not known if he can win it again. What other position should he be offered? It’s not just about Cristian Popescu, it’s about the whole team he mobilized. In the end, part of the failure of Cîrstoiu’s candidacy is due to the media mobilization that was behind Piedone. So they don’t have much to offer him. In fact, he vehemently refused this,” Pîrvulescu told Ziare.com.
Professor Pîrvulescu is of the opinion that Cristian Popescu Piedone de AUR could come closer, since it is about the same electorate with populist affinities.
“We can imagine that they are working for this, that they can negotiate, but in reality they have nothing to offer him. Sure, he risked a lot, he came up with a series of explanations, which are totally inadequate, because he said that the Nature should have entered from the beginning, but not now, because it doesn’t matter anymore. His speech is almost the same as in AUR. Besides, a possibility of getting closer to AUR might be one of the tactics he will adopt”, says the political scientist.
“I remind you that Cîrstoiu had not yet been announced, nor was his name circulating, when Popescu Piedone claimed that Firea was already outmatched and that it had no chance. We could say, therefore, that he contributed to the compromising of Gabriela Firea”, he also says.
The political scientist raises an important question related to the real goals of the PSD leadership, namely whether it wants to risk the emergence of a new pole of power within the PSD, around Gabriela Firea.
“Now, PSD is playing an absolutely natural game, they are asking him (No. Popescu Piedone) to withdraw, but do they really want Firea to win? I’m not talking about statements, I’m talking about their sincere aspirations. That is, one more candidate for the presidency of the party, apart from the ones we know, let’s call them the official competitors of Marcel Ciolacu, namely Grindeanu and Tudose, let Mrs. Firea be added to complicate things. Obviously, I am asking Cristian Popescu for this, but I cannot oblige him. The only one who can do it is the one who pushed him into this candidacy”, says Pîrvulescu.
Professor Cristian Pîrvulescu is of the opinion that this candidacy of Cristian Popescu Piedone is not so new and that it has been worked on for a long time.
“At the level of the Bucharest population, this candidacy was already being discussed at the beginning of the year, when it was not yet official. Not even official. In other words, the campaign started early. He said it very clearly, he has no one to take him back. He is the party chairman and the party leadership supports him. The collision with PSD is inherent, but it is not at all mandatory that Piedone’s voters go to Firea. They can go to Enache (not the AUR candidate for the Capital City Hall), because they are populist voters who have a certain cultural and social profile that is a close profile to the AUR voter in Bucharest, because the one here is different from the rest the country”, he says.
The political scientist explained that in Bucharest there is a greater proximity between the PSD and AUR electorate than in the rest of the country and that, in the rest of the country, the AUR electorate is made up of the middle class, largely disadvantaged in the face of the economic changes that have occurred in the last decade.
Cristian Pîrvulescu says that part of the PSD voting electorate that went to Piedone can return to Firea.
“Nicușor Dan also said it. The battle is between him and Cristian Popescu, not Firea. It will be difficult for Fiera to recover”, Pîrvulescu also said.
He is of the opinion that the two parties tried to experiment, through the candidacy of Cătălin Cîrstoiu, the formula of the joint PSD-PNL presidential candidate.
“You know why we came to this (no candidacy of Gabriela Firea), not because of Cîrstoiu and the fact that his candidacy did not take off, but because it became more and more obvious that in the presidential elections a joint candidacy is very difficult sold to the public. Because that’s what they tried to experiment with now, they tried to experiment with an independent and it didn’t work. Of course, the independent also had his problems, he was the object of some campaigns that discredited him, he did not have the notoriety that politicians generally have”, he added.
Professor Cristian Pîrvulescu emphasizes that, through this experiment, PNL realized that it does not have an electorate as obedient as that of PSD. At the same time, the political scientist is of the opinion that the June 9 vote for the Timiș county council, where the social democrat Alfred Simonis is running supported by the PSD-PNL alliance, is the ultimate test for the PNL. The two parties will thus find out if the liberal vote is transferred to the PSD candidate, or remains with the candidate Alin Nica, now supported by Forța Dreptei and Dreapta Unită.
“At the moment, the candidate for CJ Timișoara, Alfred Simonis, from the joint lists, is becoming the most important experiment for the presidential elections, because it is a PNL electorate that is rather anti-PSD, that is, very little willing to vote that way, and if he migrates to Nice, they will draw all the necessary conclusions from here”, concluded the political scientist.
The PSD-PNL coalition decided on Tuesday, April 23, after more than 15 hours of negotiations, to abandon the common independent candidate Cătălin Cîrstoiu and go with their own candidates for the Capital City Hall, in the person of Sebastian Burduja for the PNL and Gabriela Firea for the PSD.
PSD leader, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, on Tuesday, April 23, called on Cristian Popescu Piedone to give up his pride and sit down at the table of discussions to do “what is best for Bucharest”.
“I will allow myself, through you, to call another friend of mine, a friend of my brother’s, an acquaintance of over 30 years, Cristian Popescu Piedone. I think that in life we must sit down at the table, not have pride and succeed, as this team succeeded in Sector 2, to build what is best for Bucharest,” the social-democratic leader told Piedone.
Later, Cristian Popescu Piedone told him that he ruled out withdrawing from the race for the Capital City Hall. Piedone claims that, if Firea had been nominated from the beginning, he would have supported her and would no longer be a candidate.
Marcel Ciolacu claimed on Wednesday, April 24, in a press conference together with Daniel Băluță, the candidate supported by the alliance in sector 4 and Gabriela Firea, that the position offered to Popescu Piedone is also that of mayor in Sector 5, in a team with Gabriela Firea.
Also on Wednesday, April 24, the first vice-president of the PSD, Sorin Grindeanu, declared that the solution adopted by the PSD, to nominate Gabriela Firea, gives them a certain certainty that the left-wing voters, in an overwhelming proportion, go to their candidate. He also said that he anticipates an extremely close battle and then it is normal to have a dialogue with everyone with whom I can have a dialogue.
At the same time, Grindeanu admitted that “it is not a secret” that a left-wing electoral pool in Bucharest is also accessed by Firea and Piedone.
