US EditionLiberal defeats hard-right contender to become Romanian capital's mayor
Ciprian Ciucu’s win with 36.1% of nearly 590,000 votes strengthens the pro-European coalition and blocks a far-right victory in the Romanian capital.
- Ciprian Ciucu, a liberal mayor-elect, won Bucharest's mayoralty, replacing Nicusor Dan and aligning with Liberal premier Ilie Bolojan.
- The contest followed a vacancy created in May when Nicusor Dan won a presidential election re-run, and Sunday's ballot took place one year after Romania cancelled a presidential election amid fears of Russian interference favoring hard-right contenders.
- Official preliminary count at 90% showed Ciprian Ciucu won 35.4%, Anca Alexandrescu, AUR-backed hard-right contender, placed second with 22.35%, edging out Social Democrat Daniel Baluta.
- The result strengthens Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan's position, as the government is widely expected to survive a no-confidence vote later this month, and Ciucu's win gave Bolojan ammunition against future pushback.
- The election outcome matters beyond Bucharest because the cancelled vote plunged Romania into its worst crisis in decades, with Serban Riga warning it is "very dangerous" and AUR opposing military aid to Ukraine and criticizing EU leadership.
38 Articles
38 Articles
Romania elects Ciprian Ciucu as Bucharest's general mayor
The Bucharest mayoral election was actually about the political squabble that Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and his often critical head of state, Nicușor Dan, have been waging for months. In the end, the liberal candidate, or Bolojan's man, Ciprian Ciucu, won - albeit with such a low turnout that it clearly shows that after the marathon election year of 2024 and this year's presidential election, the majority of Bucharesters had already thanked hi…
Romanian Premier-Backed Candidate Wins Mayoral Race in Bucharest
The candidate of Romania’s Liberal party won the mayoral race for Bucharest, strengthening the position of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan inside the ruling coalition as he pushes through a package of austerity measures to trim the European Union’s widest budget deficit.
In the election of mayor in the Romanian capital Bucharest, the liberal candidate Ciucu has surprisingly won.
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