Sorin Oprescu: I am the first independent mayor of Bucharest. Blaga: I ran a well-intended campaign

Shortly after exit polls for Bucharest mayor elections on Sunday announced his victory, Sorin Oprescu thanked those who voted him and claimed he would be the first independent mayor of Romania’s capital city while June 15 will remain in history as „one of the most beautiful days of democracy”.

Oprescu was supported in the elections by the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD), which he resigned from in order to run in the local elections. For his part, Vasile Blaga, the candidate for the Liberal-Democratic Party (PD-L), admitted defeat as exit-polls were announced.

According to Sorin Oprescu, „it was not I who made history, it was your vote that wrote history today. Your vote was stronger than their interests”, he said, referring to allegations that incumbent PD-L mayor Adriean Videanu has involved the city hall in preferential dealings with firms controlled by people close to him.

For his part, Vasile Blaga said on his defeat that when ballot boxes speak, then politicians have to shut up. He said that he ran a well-intended campaign which was based on solutions for Bucharest’s various problems and not on demagoguery. And PD-L leader Emil Boc said the Bucharest branch of his party did all it could in order to win the elections and while he would have liked different results, „unfortunately Bucharest citizens would be the ones to lose following elections today”.

Mircea Geoana, the leader of the Social Democrats, who backed Oprescu in his campaign for Bucharest mayor, said that the results today were „a smashing defeat for [President] Traian Basescu” who, he says, lost all credibility and legitimacy for getting involved in the local elections campaign. Geoana also said on Sunday Bucharest citizens „removed the Rightist dictatorship” – referring to the fact that the capital city of Romania has long been a stronghold for parties opposing the Social Democrats.