Marcel Čolaku and Nicolae Chuke officially presented the doctor Katalin Kirsta in the fight for the capital’s mayor’s office. HotNews.ro filmed the event, capturing what was not seen on TV.

This was the end of the press conference, which was aimed at introducing Dr. Cătălin Cîrstoiu, candidate of the PSD-PNL alliance for the mayor’s office, to journalists and party members. Guests and participants leave the hall to their offices in the parliament. “Where’s the mayor?” asks PNL President Nikolay Chuke. She does not see him, so she continues on her way. Gabriela Firea, the former mayor of Bucharest, also comes out and is immediately surrounded by journalists. A few seconds later, the doctor Katalin Kirshtoy also appears. Journalists notice him and let him pass by.

By that time, for more than an hour and a half, the spotlight was on the stage, where he went out accompanied by party officials to answer questions from journalists, this time from the position of the PSD-PNL candidate for the capital’s mayor’s office.

How Cătălin Cîrstoiu looks in the polls, does he consider himself more social democratic or more liberal, who came up with the project for Bucharest, how and when he met with the coalition partners, why he rejected the first PSD proposal, if he is supported by the mayor of sector 3 Robert Negoitz, who initially expressed his support for Christian Popescu-Piedone?

These are some of the questions asked during the conference organized by the PSD-PNL alliance, addressed to candidate Cîrstoiu and leaving a vague or incomplete answer. Some of them were answered by Nicolae Chuke and Marcel Čolaku instead of the candidate. And when he spoke, the confirmation came across party lines, not from the public. “I am satisfied with the answer,” assured Prime Minister Cholaku.

On other questions, the doctor preferred to show his irony and ask for help in the room: “Ask Ridky, who knows anatomy better. He had a pain in his spine, but we got better.” He referred to a comment by Raresh Bohdan, who two days earlier said he had not heard his name: “I don’t know this knee doctor.”

One day, Robert Negoitz is called to the stage, also to help. “Come on, Robert, come on, if he ate you, I told you…” Prime Minister Cholaku invites him. And the mayor of sector 3 responds to the invitation and tries to clarify “Piedone’s dilemma”: “Sir, I did not say that I was voting with someone else, so that it would be clear. And we know very well… And you do your job, and you do it well, that you interpret everything and change the context. But I… What does it matter that I vote? I? When I have to vote for someone, I vote with hope, I vote for what I know in principle. I met Cătălin yesterday and I think from what I understand so far… But let’s understand each other. We have two months, for God’s sake, stop interpreting things.’

After more than an hour in which he was in front of the press for the first time, candidate Katalin Kirštau’s press conference was the focus of more people offering him political support.

Gabriela Firea: “We overcome personal passions, not pride”

“I am happy that today, on the Day of Happiness, we are discussing Bucharest,” says Gabriela Firea, the former mayor of the capital, who is now the campaign coordinator of the candidate Catalin Kirstau. It is she who opens the presentations.

It is the “Day of Happiness” in the Romanian Parliament, and Gabriela Firea, followed by the liberal Sebastian Burduia, former candidates for the mayor’s office of the capital, act as mediators for the first public appearance of a real candidate from the Alliance: a doctor, university professor, manager, Cătălin Cîrstoiu.

The hall is full not only of journalists. The Alliance has placed local councilors from the General Mayor’s Office and from the sectoral mayor’s offices, some deputies have also come, and the leaders of the two parties are in the front row. From left to right, not only in terms of location in the room: Mayor of Sector 3 Robert Negoice, Mayor of Sector 4 Daniel Beluce, President of the Chamber of Deputies Alfred Simonis, Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neatsu, Senator Paul Stanescu, Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku, President of the Senate Nicolae Chouquet, Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies Lucian Bode, Member of the European Parliament Rares Bohdan, Vice Mayor of the capital Stelian Buduveanu and Mayor of Sector 6, Ciprian Chouquet. In the hall, only the deputies of the sectoral mayor’s offices take pictures with their phones.

“We shake each other’s hands and overcome personal passions, let’s not call them pride!” – declares Gabriela Firea and receives applause from the hall. Applause to all participants sitting in the first row.

He does not applaud Alexander Rafil, the current Minister of Health, also a contender for important positions in the state. The organizers put him somewhere, on the sidelines, and now he no longer has a general picture of the stage. To pass the time, he polishes the phone screen.

Next up at the microphone is Liberal Sebastien Bourduilla, another coordinator of Dr. Kirstau’s campaign. A graduate of Harvard and ASE, the liberal talks about Bucharest’s huge GDP per capita and quotes Ionel Bratianu, who once said that the people of Bucharest were the initiators of great things. He also quotes Nicolae Iorga and former interwar mayor Dem Dobrescu. To the right of Gabriela Firea, he discusses the fact that the nobility is obliged and points to the ego struggle at the top of the capital’s administration.

He speaks almost fluently as he stares at the papers on the table. “The time for scandal has passed,” he concludes and encourages candidate Katalin Kirshta. At the end of the speech, he shakes her hand. The doctor also looks the other way, but Gabriela Firea is no longer on the scene.

Standing, Senator Vasile Dinku watches the scene with interest and tactfully hides every potential grimace. It is placed near the exit.

Chuke: “Even if today, on Happiness Day, I didn’t bring happiness, I think I brought normalcy”

“It is a great joy, after such a long time, to be at the candidate’s presentation today,” says Nicolae Chuke. Which calms down the talk about happiness a little more: “Even if today, on Happiness Day, I didn’t bring happiness, I think I brought normalcy.” He also praises the candidate – “he knows how to cut, he knows how to heal, he knows how to get the body in working order” – and then leaves the stage to Marcel Cholak. “I didn’t argue with Mrs. Firea,” the PSD leader likes to point out and expresses hopes for a new alliance product.

“For the first time, a product of this alliance, a candidate for the post of general mayor of the capital,” is how Dr. Kirshtoy describes himself when he is finally given the floor. Then he explains that he wants to perform in the capital, and ends with a “slightly painful” confession: he has cancer. Applause.

• INTERVIEW “Let’s clarify the story from the Collective with everything. I was passionate…” Doctor candidate Cătălin Cîrstoiu reveals the discussion from his office with Minister Bănicioiu. VIDEO