Romanian Leftist Party UNPR Announces Candidate For Bucharest Mayor

Oprea said Ontanu, secretary general of UNPR, is the party’s best contender for the position of general mayor, because he has strong organizational and administrative skills and really knows what is of top priority for Bucharest citizens. Ontanu is at his third term as Bucharest District 2 mayor.

UNPR leaders met Saturday in mountain resort Poiana Brasov to discuss the party’s strategy in view of local elections due in 2012.

During the campaign for the presidential elections in 2009, Ontanu, the then-executive president of the Bucharest branch of the Social Democratic Party, said he would support President Traian Basescu for a second term as head of state, and not the then-social democrat leader Mircea Geoana. Following these statements, the Bucharest social democrats ousted Ontanu from the party in October 2009.

Ontanu left the Social Democratic Party in March 2006, citing disputes within the party but returned in 2007, when he was also elected executive president of the Bucharest branch.