New surveys reveal tight race for Bucharest mayor three weeks ahead of the vote

Two new polls by survey companies CURS and AtlasIntel show an extremely tight race for Bucharest general mayor, a position left vacant after former mayor Nicusor Dan became president of Romania earlier this year.

Social Democrat (PSD) candidate Daniel Băluţă tops the CURS poll, with 27%, followed by center-right candidates Ciprian Ciucu (National Liberal Party - PNL) and Cătălin Drulă (Save Romania Union - USR), each with 22%. The parties of the three main candidates are all part of the governing coalition, and relations have been tense as a result of the race.

Meanwhile, the candidate of the far-right opposition party Alliance for Union of Romanians (AUR), Anca Alexandrescu, is backed by 15% of Bucharest voters, followed by a series of independent candidates who score between 2 and 5% of votes.

Regarding the rejection rate, the highest level is recorded by Anca Alexandrescu, mentioned by 28% of respondents. She is followed by Virgil Zidar, a sovereignist influencer known as Makaveli, with 20%, and Cătălin Drulă, with 17%. Candidates from traditional parties tend to exhibit lower rejection rates, according to the survey.

More than half of respondents, 57%, firmly state that they will vote, while another 9% declare themselves very likely to participate in the elections. Only a minority of 3% say they will definitely not vote.

When asked to list the problems that Bucharest faces, respondents mention traffic, the functioning of public hospitals, the faulty heating system, corruption in the local administration, and air pollution.

A separate poll by AtlasIntel also shows an extremely tight race between the top four ranking candidates, an unprecedented situation in Bucharest. Liberal Ciprian Ciucu heads the poll, with 19.2%, followed by Daniel Băluță with 18.6%, Cătălin Drulă with 18.1%, and Anca Alexandrescu with 17.9%.

The same poll shows that Ana Ciceală, an independent backed by the progressive, non-parliamentary SENS party, gathers 7.1% of votes, followed by another independent, Vlad Gheorghe, with 2.6%. Virgil Zidaru is credited with 2.8% of the votes.

The opinion poll was conducted by AtlasIntel for Hotnews.ro between November 12–14, 2025, on a sample of 2,429 people.

The survey firm AtlasIntel gained prominence in 2024 when it correctly predicted the result of the local elections. The firm failed to foresee the lightning-fast rise in popularity of pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu in the presidential elections the same year, but it did correctly place center-right candidate Elena Lasconi among the top two candidates.