Centre-right Parties Trounce Social Democrats in Romanian local elections

With more than 90 per cent of votes counted across Romania, the ruling National Liberal Party, PNL, triumphed in local elections on Sunday, expanding its municipal power base considerably, and becoming the party that now runs most provincial capitals, 15, followed by the Social Democrats, PSD, on 13.

Its ally USR PLUS, the third largest party in parliament, which formerly had a rather reduced presence in municipalities and local councils, gained control of four provincial capitals, an important step in consolidating the alliance as a major player in local and regional politics.

The fiercest electoral battle was fought for Bucharest city hall, where incumbent Social Democrat Gabriela Firea lost to the independent PNL and USR PLUS-backed candidate, Nicusor Dan. Dan took the capital's mayoralty after winning more than 41 per cent of the votes to just over 37 per cent for Firea.

The Social Democrats also lost most of the administrative sub-sectors into which the Romanian capital is divided. USR PLUS won two sectors while the PNL and the Social Democrats won one each.

One of the new USR PLUS mayors in Bucharest is a French-born Romanian citizen, Clotilde Armand, who becomes the first foreign citizen to be elected mayor of a district of Bucharest.

The Social Democrats also lost control of the major Black Sea port of Constanta, where the current mayor, Deceal Fagadau, lost to the PNL candidate, Vergil Chitac.

Another important municipality where power changed hands is the western city of Timisoara, which becomes the first major Romanian city to be run by a USR PLUS candidate after Dominic Fritz beat the incumbent PNL mayor, Nicolae Robu.

Fritz's win was historic for another reason. Born in Germany in 1983, Fritz is a...

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