Nicusor Dan: If I had to bet, I would bet that Piedone doesn’t retire, but I can’t rule out the possibility. I exclude the withdrawal of Firea

The general mayor of the Capital, Nicușor Dan, does not believe that Cristian Popescu Piedone, PUSL candidate, will withdraw from the race for the local elections on June 9, but says that he “cannot rule out” this scenario. Instead, he says that the withdrawal of Gabriela Firea, former mayor and candidate of the social democrats, is excluded, reports News.ro.

Nicusor Dan was asked, on Saturday, on Prima TV, how he feels entering for the first time as a favorite in an electoral competition.

“Know that you are right. Four years ago, however, the parties that supported me together had more votes than the PSD and then, even if at the beginning I had a notoriety gap, it seemed that the support I already had made me the favorite even before the poll to give me a favorite, the betting houses gave me a favorite, but not from the very beginning”, said Nicuşor Dan.

He was also asked if he feels the favorite at the moment.

“No, it’s a few more weeks. It’s a question of mobilization, polls, you know how they are, the information at the moment, they are very approximate, in no case… And especially the PSD pool, which Cristian Popescu Piedone and Gabriela Firea share at the moment, is a pool very consistent, at any time votes can go from one to the other and then we are far from… Obviously, it is something that I have an advantage, but if one of them seems to have more chances, it is possible that many people from the left PSD basin to go to him”, explained the mayor of the capital.

Regarding Piedone’s withdrawal from the race, Nicuşor Dan said: “I would rather say that he will not withdraw. If I had to bet, I would bet that he doesn’t retire, but I can’t rule out this option”.

However, he excludes a withdrawal of Gabriela Firea.

“I exclude this because that is the reason why she came in, to draw the list… I mean, to take it from the beginning, it was a national imperative for the PSD-PNL to come up with the overlap and the list of common candidates. They chose a common candidate who seemed ok. It was seen that he does not perform and, moreover, drags down the list of general advisers and especially the list for the European Parliament, being the overlapped elections, and then this logical decision was made from the perspective of the two parties to come up with joint candidates that maximize the score of the games”, said Nicusor Dan.

The mayor was also asked how he experienced as a politician the 14-hour meeting of the governing coalition in which it was decided that Gabriela Firea and Sebastian Burduja enter the race for the Capital City Hall.

“I do not remember. The other day I was at the town hall, after which I went home, played a little with the children and went to bed. I didn’t have big… I saw it, of course, the next morning I went on the Internet to see what happened”, said Nicusor Dan.

He says that, if initially the coalition’s decision to abandon the common candidate for the Capital City Hall seemed like a surprising decision, it turned out to be a correct decision, given that the chosen candidate was not “convincing”.

“They could not repeat the experience once more. And there are no famous people who would like to enter politics. And if they wanted to have a common candidate between the two parties, they had the same problem from the beginning, that the PSD-ists did not vote for a PNL-ist, the PNL-ists did not vote for a PSD-ist”, said Nicuşor Dan.

The mayor of the capital believes that PNL sympathizers will also vote for him, “so that Piedone or Gabriela Firea don’t come out”.

“Obviously, in 2020 I was voted by a USR-ist public and a PNL-ist public together, generally by a right-wing public. Mr. Burduja addresses this public, he is a PNL member. I have the hope that even if PNL sympathizers think that Mr. Burduja is better than me, on the matter of the useful vote, that we already have an exercise with all of us on elections in one round, they will vote for me so that Piedone or Gabriela do not come out Nature”, said Nicuşor Dan.

Nicusor Dan declares himself willing to form a majority in the General Council that will also include PNL.

“Of course, I really want it, because most of this, as it was with USR, PNL, PMP, worked very well. You were probably bored in the mandate, you didn’t find any big scandals”, explained Nicuşor Dan.

He added that he would not like to become general mayor without having a stable majority.

“I don’t want to end up in this situation and I don’t think anyone wants to, I don’t think they do either. I mean, all the time in politics you have to look at what the people want. People do not want a permanent war, they want their problems to be solved and then we will see what the configuration will be after the elections, we must have a relatively stable majority and the majority implies some division of attributions, it is something natural”, said Nicusor Dan.

Asked if he negotiated with the USR for a position of deputy mayor, he answered: “No, at this moment, it’s just that it’s obvious to them, that is, to the USR, Forza Dreptei, PMP, that they are together now, and to Reper, if they will enter the General Council, it is obvious that they will be part of the majority”, emphasized the mayor of the Capital.

Publisher: MB

Download the Digi24 app and find out the most important news of the day