Mr. Nicușor Dan and his supporters have every reason to pray for Mr. Piedone not to withdraw from the race for the Capital. And that for several reasons. Some of them are downright mathematical.
Gabriela Firea and Cristian Popescu Piedone share, in broad lines, the same electoral base. Until Mrs. Firea entered the race, Piedone took the largest part of it, because Mr. Cîrstoiu had no adherence in that area. Mrs. Firea takes back a large part of the PSD electorate, enough for Piedone not to have any real chance for the first place, but insufficient for her to win herself.
Another reason would be that from the moment Piedone disappears from the scene, paradoxically, Mrs. Firea would have a greater chance of winning than if she had entered from the beginning, without Piedone. Initially, she was the big bad, with asylums, companies, bunnies, etc., and she had the greatest capacity to raise the wave of hatred in favor of Nicușor Dan.
But at this moment, the big bad, with the capacity to mobilize around Nicușor Dan, is Piedone. If he disappears, Mrs. Firea can even seem tolerable, especially if she does not go overboard. Eliminating Piedone would mean a kind of dangerous relaxation for Nicușor Dan.
Therefore, the incumbent mayor strives to keep him in the ring and for that, on the one hand, continues to validate him as the main opponent, but also invokes his withdrawal to provoke new denials that would make a future retraction even more difficult.
### The Stake of Dan Voiculescu
I do not believe that Piedone and, especially his political patron, Dan Voiculescu, are so naive as to believe that he still has a real chance to win after Mrs. Firea entered the race.
They should plan to slaughter Gabriela Firea to leave her without the PSD electorate, which is very difficult. To hope that the PSD Bucharest branch electorate, which Mrs. Firea controls very well, will abandon her to go to Piedone is unrealistic.
So it is obvious that the current configuration is in favor of the current general mayor, as shown by the first polls conducted after the big failure of the joint candidate. However, I do not suspect Piedone or Dan Voiculescu of any hidden sympathy for Nicușor Dan.
Obviously, the stake for Dan Voiculescu, as I have said before, is not necessarily the Bucharest City Hall. The big stake is to increase the PUSL score for the parliamentary elections.
With an active and exotic Piedone, displayed on all screens, the party, until now absolutely obscure, certainly gains great visibility and can amplify its score, primarily in Bucharest, but also nationally. PUSL has reached 12% in Bucharest, just 3 percentage points behind PNL.
So, obviously, there is only one price for which Piedone could withdraw, but not a personal one. Most likely, the price would include an electoral alliance for the autumn elections, with which PSD would pull PUSL into Parliament, with a much larger number of seats than the party could obtain solely through the increase ensured by Piedone and Antena.
### Is Marcel Ciolacu Willing to Pay the Price?
It is difficult to make the decision to turn Gabriela Firea into the savior mayor who would become a dangerous rival within the party. It is difficult to decide on this donation of mandates that he would settle within the party. Of course, it would suit him to have a hinge in Parliament, a party with which to form a majority, but not in the PSD positions, it would not help him in any way.
Plus, Dan Voiculescu is not necessarily a trustworthy partner. There was once the immoral solution that left Adrian Năstase high and dry.
And there’s something else, perhaps the most difficult to overcome. There are many signals that the Voiculescu area is betting on Mircea Geoană for the presidential elections.
For now, it seems that beyond the public messages, apparently more for show, Marcel Ciolacu has not even opened a serious negotiation about the correct price. This is what Piedone tells us, „I do not negotiate with anyone. No one called me and I do not call anyone.”
And just before opening it, Marcel Ciolacu announced that he closed it: „I have ended any dialogue and any offer for Cristian Popescu Piedone. I said that we need to think about what we have to build for Bucharest, not to try to remain stuck in personal dreams. Everything I wanted to convey to Mr. Cristian Popescu Piedone, I have conveyed until today. I have not met him, I have conveyed it through you. It was my great pleasure.”
So if Piedone does not withdraw, it is because Marcel Ciolacu has chosen so.