Sorin Mircea Oprescu (; born 7 November 1951) is a Romanian

independent politician An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or Bureaucracy, bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicia ...

and

medical doctor A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...

who previously served as

Mayor of Bucharest The mayor of Bucharest (), sometimes known as the general mayor, is the head of the Bucharest City Hall in Bucharest, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast ...

between 2008 and 2015.

Political activity

Oprescu first ran for Mayor of Bucharest in 1998 backed by the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR), the precursor to the modern-day

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(PSD). He was eliminated in the first round with 19.3% of the vote, losing to incumbent Viorel Lis who was supported by the

Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party The Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (, PNȚCD) is an agrarianism, agrarian and Christian democracy, Christian democratic list of political parties in Romania, political party in Romania. It claims to be the rightful successor of t ...

(PNȚ-CD). He ran again in 2000, achieving the highest first-round total (40.1%) but losing in the second round with 49.3% to winner

Traian Băsescu Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a Romanian politician who served as the president of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian minister of transport on multiple occasions between 1991 and 2000, ...

's 50.7%. He was also a senator representing the

(PSD) between 2000 and April 2008, serving as the vice-president of the Senate Committee for Public Health. Oprescu resigned from the Senate on 24 June 2008. In February 2006, Oprescu also became the president of the Social Democratic Party's Bucharest branch, a position from which he stepped down upon quitting the party in April 2008. In 2008, after the Social Democratic Party (PSD) refused to nominate him to the mayoral elections, he ran as an

independent candidate An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have polit ...

. He earned the most votes in the first round of the elections. In the second round against the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) candidate

Vasile Blaga Vasile Blaga (; born 26 July 1956) is a Romanian centre-right politician who is currently serving as a Senator of Romania since 2024, representing Timiș County. He previously held the same position from 1996 to 2000 (representing Bihor County) ...

, with the support of the National Liberals and Social Democrats (who announced they would support anyone who ran against the Democratic Liberals), he won with 56.6% of the vote. Nevertheless, the Social-Democrat mayor of Bucharest's Sector 2, Neculai Onţanu, announced he supported Blaga, while the Social Democratic mayor of

Sector 5 Sector 5 () is an administrative unit of Bucharest. Quarters * 13 Septembrie * Cotroceni * Ferentari * Ghencea * Giurgiului * Odăi * Rahova * Sălaj Politics From 2020 until May 2022, the mayor of the sector was Cristian Popescu Piedo ...

Marian Vanghelie Daniel Marian Vanghelie (born 1968 in Bucharest, Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania) is a Romanian politician, the former mayor of the Sector 5 (Bucharest), 5th Sectors of Bucharest, Sector of Bucharest (2000–2016) and a former member of t ...

, announced he would not support Oprescu and even accused him of being a "cheap demagogue". He was one of the independent candidates running for

President of Romania The president of Romania () is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two ter ...

in the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

which took place on 22 November 2009. He was eliminated in the first round, gaining only 3.2% of the total cast votes and thereby placing on the 5th position, and was involved in a notable

Condorcet cycle In social choice theory, Condorcet's voting paradox is a fundamental discovery by the Marquis de Condorcet that majority rule is inherently self-contradictory. The result implies that it is logically impossible for any voting system to guarante ...

with

Mircea Geoană Dan Mircea Geoană (; born 14 July 1958) is a Romanian politician and diplomat who served as the Secretary General of NATO, deputy secretary general of NATO between 2019 and 2024. He previously served as president of the Senate of Romania from D ...

and eventual winner

Conviction

In September 2015, he was arrested on charges of corruption. On 15 September 2015, being deposed by Bucharest's Prefect upon a courts' decision to maintain Oprescu's arrest, an interim successor was elected from one of the city's deputy-mayors.

Electoral history

Mayor of Bucharest

Presidential elections

References

External links

Sorin Oprescu – official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oprescu, Sorin 1951 births Living people Academic staff of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Mayors of Bucharest Social Democratic Party (Romania) politicians Candidates for President of Romania 20th-century Romanian physicians 21st-century Romanian physicians Physicians from Bucharest Knights of the Legion of Honour Ion Luca Caragiale National College (Bucharest) alumni