Without a common candidacy for the Mayor of the Capital, the entire project of joint lists starting from June 9th and, in perspective, for the autumn-winter electoral season, would have been ridiculed. So the decision on Monday night was predictable.
After the presidential function confrontation, the one in Bucharest, primarily for the general mayoralty, but also for the sectors, is the most visible, personalized, and tracked.
It was impossible for partners in one election to be adversaries in another on the same day. It was impossible to have joint candidacies for sectors and not have a joint candidacy for the general mayoralty. The message would have been one of impossibility and lack of viability of the entire construction.
But choosing a successful common candidate proved to be a more difficult mission than anticipated, for reasons we have discussed. In short, because no candidate from one of the two parties managed to significantly capture the other party's electorate, so the candidacy wouldn't have truly been joint.
The only solution would have been an independent candidate from outside the parties, capable of uniting the two electorates and even bringing some from outside, as Nicușor Dan did for USR and PNL in 2020.
However, such a candidate must fulfill an essential condition, one that Nicușor Dan met: notoriety associated with the issues of the Capital. Someone recognized as concerned, active, qualified to manage Bucharest.
Such a person is hard to find, unless you grow and nurture them early.
We understand that after many rounds of deliberations, the decision would be the doctor Cătălin Cîrstoiu, former manager of the University Hospital, dean of the Faculty of General Medicine. Is this profile suitable? Extremely debatable.
The notoriety is low, even Rareș Bogdan mentioned that he had to search for him on Google, nothing from his career is associated with Bucharest. Yes, he was the manager of the largest hospital in the Capital, but Bucharest is a different beast, both in size and specifics. It remains to be seen how much charisma he will display.
Moreover, the position of general mayor is a political one, requiring political skills and recognition. It's not a competition for hiring a city manager, but a political election to choose the dignitary directly voted with the largest number of votes after the president.
Yes, there is a general disdain when it comes to politicians, but after 34 years of elections and political spectacle, voters are instinctively drawn to political skills.
Therefore, it is highly debatable whether the party assets will be able to mobilize enough electorate to compensate for the shortcomings of the common candidate. And voters are not herds to be driven to vote with a whip.
So it is very possible that the battle will be fought between the two candidates of caliber, each in their own way, the incumbent mayor Nicușor Dan and Cristian Popescu Piedone.
They have the peculiarity of not competing for the same electorate, their areas of overlap being minimal, but each can significantly erode the electorates of the common candidate. Nicușor Dan from PNL, and Piedone from PSD.
A defeat for the coalition in Bucharest would be a terrible blow in the first series of elections, one that would raise doubts about the viability of the electoral alliance itself. So the first option is victory, of course.
But if under the fixed conditions, a common candidate and from outside the parties, victory is not realistically possible? Then it is logical to try to minimize the defeat as much as possible, to package it in someone else's baggage to carry and try to turn it into a victory.
If the common candidate wins, it will be the alliance's victory; if he loses, it will be his defeat, and the alliance will celebrate the victories in the sectors and council.
Additionally, if Mr. Cătălin Cîrstoiu, or whoever will inevitably be the common candidate, fails to take off in the campaign and realistically, defeat becomes inevitable, there is always the 2008 scenario available, when the official candidate of the PSD was left alone, and all the party's support went to the "independent" Sorin Oprescu.
Even the Capital's prefect, Rareş Hopincă, a future mayoral candidate, probably, stated that between Nicuşor Dan and Cristian Popescu Piedone, he would vote for the mayor of Sector 5, who seems to have the necessary data to win an election.
It's interesting that Cristian Popescu Piedone ended up running for office and hasn't already received a substantial compensation for withdrawal, which would have been essential for the alliance's candidate. Could nothing have been negotiated with Mr. Piedone, or does the contingency plan remain recoverable by the alliance post-election?