Bucharest mayor, ready to challenge SocDem leader for presidential ticket

Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea says she is willing to run to whatever position Social Democrat Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea decides to run for, including president of Romania, Mediafax reported. She claims she is doing this to offer an alternative to Dragnea.

Firea is a member of PSD, but lost all her senior positions in the party last year, after a string of attacks against Dragnea.

“With Mr. Dragnea making my mandate impossible, making my life impossible, he is basically getting even. One thing is clear, the whole country can see this. He is getting even now because, in September of last year, I had the courage to say that things were not going in the right direction […] Wherever he will go, considering that he is making my life impossible in Bucharest, I will go to show a different face, to be an alternative to him,” Firea said in a TV show, when asked if she was considering another presidential bid.

This is for the first time when Firea openly admitted that she would consider a presidential bid. Up until now, she repeatedly said she had no intention to run for president as she wanted to complete her mandate as mayor of Bucharest.

“We don’t know if he would run in the presidential elections, so I do not have a reason to say I will go there, but even if he runs in Teleorman, I’m letting him know officially that I will go after him and make a bid,” she said, quoted by Ziare.com.

Firea also said she would not run on behalf of the Pro Romania party, which was founded last year by former prime minister Victor Ponta, PSD’s leader before Dragnea. Ponta has managed to poach several important PSD members in recent weeks, including former prime minister Mihai Tudose, a veteran PSD member. European commissioner Corina Cretu also said she would run in the European Parliamentary elections on Pro Romania’s ticket, despite her old connections with PSD.

Gabriela Firea said she would not leave PSD as she has many friends within the party. However, she admitted that her recent positions against Dragnea could get her excluded from the party.

At the beginning of November 2018, two members of the PSD leadership, Adrian Tutuianu and Marian Neacsu, were excluded from the party for their attacks against party members loyal to Dragnea. Tutuianu, who was the leader of the PSD Dambovita organization, also joined Victor Ponta’s party.