*updated 2008-05-30: added videos

June 1st, 2008 will be the 5th time when Romanians will go to vote to choose their county mayorship after the ‘90 Revolution. Explanation for Romanian Mayorship: the Mayor and the General Council will share their duties in the most horrible way.

So here we are, 18 years away from the communist regime.

The present time finds us with a peculiar situation, to say the least, regarding the candidates for Mayorship of Bucharest Municipality. We have these as the main contenders:

And their situation is like this:

  • Vasile BLAGA

    a former Minister of Administration and Interior (often named as one of the two people that brought Romania in the EU on time)
    -
    a Western Romanian (a quality that makes him stand out from the other contenders)
    -
    a strong team behind him and a real plan, with deadlines and a Google Map (via Subiectiv)
    -
    with a clean and right-on-the-spot website
    -

  • Sorin OPRESCU

    a man who is such Social Democrat, that nothing is going to take him away from the party, no matter how many times he quits (he quit the party right after the party nominated Cristian Diaconescu for the mayorship)
    -
    a medical doctor that I only heard when speaking against the medical system, which is crap indeed, even if the Social Democrats have ruled Romania ‘90 - ‘92, ‘92 - ‘96, 2000 - 2004
    -
    the only exception to the above is when the present Liberal Minister of Health tried to demote him from his position of a hospital manager
    -
    an official website that has been created just two weeks before the election day, and which should have never existed since it is simply “vorba volant” + a picture
    -
    a blog launched before the official website, which is nothing of what a blog is (web log, diary, journal, personal, etc) but entries by someone saying “Oprescu is the best. Vote for him!” ?!
    -
    he promises a highway over Bucharest. Right on, my man!
    -

  • Cristian DIACONESCU

    a man that I saw on the streets just a couple of years ago, and he looked just like a plain old visitor: with a jeans jacket and pants, with a dressed-up wife next to him.. looking at the buildings and at the shopping street as if he’d come from a different Bucharest
    -
    the same man today looks like a visitor still, just with a bit more to talk about, and with a nice suit, and believe me I followed his evolution
    -
    he’s a good man, often a good logic and a good sense of honesty, but he doesn’t show confidence in itself and in the party (the latter is to be understood given the current situation - the party is headed to a division between the conservatives and the modernists), nor does he show personal initiative
    -
    an official website with lots of text and plans, hard to find, which leaves nothing when you close your browser window - a real Literature-focused web presence
    -

  • Ludovic ORBAN

    only remembered as they guy with the smile, or the guy who plays the guitar, or the guy who tried to hide a car crash from the public knowledge
    -
    to be remembered as the guy who lost Bucharest’s Mayorship, even if he seemed so wise with his fake “the cage” technique - image via România Liberă
    -

  • Cozmin GUȘĂ

    a former journalist wannabe (he was actually, but I haven’t heard of a good article written by him; actually I didn’t hear about him at all until the 2004 elections)
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    a former Democrat (member of the Democratic Party, now Liberal Democratic Party)
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    founder of the National Initiative Party, with a stupid slogan and a stupid mascot
    -
    an independent candidate actually, since he is the one bringing the party some benefit, and not the other way around
    -
    stupid and grammatically incorrect campaign motto
    -
    a powerful “in-your-face” website, with 2 penny videos and news.. scandalous, meaningless, anti-system, dreamy
    -

All but two (Blaga and Diaconescu) of the contenders, mentioned above or not, have built their entire campaign on a foolish and disgraceful plan of hitting in the current mayor Adrien VIDEANU (a Liberal Democrat that has had enough with the unfair bullshit thrown at him and goes back to his private business, after what I call a successful 3 years mandate - Official Website) and in the current president Traian BĂSESCU (former leader of the former Democratic Party), which after all, has nothing to do with the mayorship elections whatsoever.

But you can see that with your own eyes, in a confrontation on public television, in a talk-show called “România votează! Alegeri locale 2008″ (eng. Romania votes! Local elections 2008). And you’ll also see some communist debris..

Pre-elections Statistics (images):

And that is Bucharest!

On the other hand, in my hometown’s county, Galați, the situation is so much different.

To sum up, since ‘92 we have had the same Social Democrat Mayor - Eugen DURBACĂ, who then went to the Conservative Party, making way for another 8 beautiful years of Social Democrat Mayorship under Dumitru NICOLAE. Durbacă simply became president of the County Council.

In 2004, the only real alternative came under the name Andrei LIȘINSCHI - independent. He lost.

Now, the political offer is like this:

  • National Liberal Party: the local football club’s president, Marius STAN, as Mayor, and Victor Paul DOBRE, as the president of the County Council
  • Conservative Party: Avran RĂZVAN, a who-is-he, as Mayor and Eugen DURBACĂ, the never-going as pCC
  • New Generation Party - Christian Democrat: some guys who promise flats for everybody, cheap medicine for the elders, etc, etc
  • Social Democrat Party: another never-going, Dumitru NICOLAE as Mayor, and who-is-he as pCC
  • Liberal Democrat Party: the former independent Andrei LIȘINSCHI, and Marius NECULA GERARD as pCC

Now, anyone who lived in this town can see that the only alternative (that is, if you want an alternative to the Social Democrats) is made up of the Liberal Democrat candidates. And yes, I know that Marius NECULA is a former Social Democrat.. go figure! But I met him once and he didn’t fall under the “superficial & no-good” category.

The problem is.. that if you search for Andrei LIȘINSCHI, you will find nothing.

Nothing except a very basic and low-grade thing, like a recording of one of his speeches. Crap speeches that is.

The bigger problem is this. I only came across his programme, while writing this entry and finding the party’s local branch website. And then you end up slowly on this page, where you need to figure out that you need to click his face to download a 6 Mb PDF document. Well, surprise.. pure literature. Literature or not, it would still not pass 8th grade requirements..

No wonder none of them wanted to present their plans to a non-affiliated public blog. But that doesn’t stop people, thank goodness. And if there are no plans, at least we have opinions: Andrei LIȘINSCHI, Dumitru NICOLAE and others.

And this is happening after 18 years.. after a quarter of one’s life! A quarter… And that is a Swedish life, while for a Romanian life, it would be even a third!

Last Modified on May 30, 2008 @ 6:02 pm