Ruling coalition still has no common strategy for local elections in Bucharest

Romania’s ruling Social Democrats and Liberals decided, after five hours of negotiations on March 14, to resume talks on a joint candidate for Bucharest mayor on March 18.

They announced a decision to have joint candidates for three of Bucharest’s six districts (1, 2, and 5), but again they haven’t agreed yet on specific candidates, News.ro reported. The other three districts already have mayors from one of the two parties, and they expect to get another term.

Social Democrats’ spokesperson Lucian Romascanu implied that his party’s best candidate, former mayor Gabriela Firea, would still not win the elections. He also implied that the attempt to find a joint candidate for the two parties may fail.

“The polls show us that we tried to put a common candidate, we are not able to put the voters of the two parties together and we can not allow a failure. A candidate is being figured out [by the two parties] who will match [our] administrative project for Bucharest. If we do not succeed in this by Monday [March 18], each party will have its candidate," Romascanu told Romania TV, according to Agerpres.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)