The battle for the mayoral seat in Bucharest, so far the most animated dispute in a year with four rounds of elections in Romania, just got more impassioned after Social Democrat potential candidate Gabriela Firea self-proposed her despite no agreement yet among the ruling coalition's members. 

In the meantime, the Social Democrats and the Liberals are negotiating and exploring alternative strategies that could give them a chance to win Bucharest City Hall again. Liberals would opt for someone with an entrepreneurial pedigree, while the Social Democrats are lacking many alternatives. In any case, both parties agreed that their candidate would not be an independent – at least someone ready to join one of the two parties.

But this was only part of the complex developments that brought the race for the Bucharest City Hall up on the public agenda. 

In another notable development, quasi-independent candidate Cristian Popescu Piedone – who might erode the score of the ruling coalition's candidate, was accused by the National Integrity Agency (ANI) of hiring his son-in-law, Hotnews.ro reported. The accusations were announced the day after he announced plans to run for mayor. If the allegations hold water, Piedone might not be able to run in the local elections this June.

While ANI finding irregularities in Piedone's activity may not come as a surprise, the timing prompted many questions.

Meanwhile, incumbent mayor Nicusor Dan voiced his opinion on what these elections are about: namely, the "real estate mafia" will push huge amounts of money to back a candidate against him, any candidate who is ready to accept more "flexible" urban regulations and allow them to build just like they built over the past 30 years.

Dan claimed that, instead of a public debate, there would again be "a hate campaign, a campaign with personal attacks," and in this campaign, a lot of underground money from "real estate sharks" would be spent," RFI reported.

"Because we actually did not have a real opposition to this administration. The only fight that took place over the past three years was the fight between the current administration and the real estate sharks. That is, between a correct, healthy development for the public interest and a speculative development in which the private person takes the money, and after that, the authority comes and tries to fix what can be fixed. Now, the real estate sharks are looking for a puppet who will allow them to do what they've done in the past: 10-story blocks of apartments on two-lane streets, blocks of apartments in parks, complexes of blocks where you can't find a road, a school, a kindergarten," said Nicusor Dan.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos / George Călin)