Sorin Oprescu


Sorin Mircea Oprescu is a Romanian independent politician and medical doctor who was Mayor of Bucharest between 2008 and 2015.

Political activity

Oprescu first ran for Mayor of Bucharest in 1998 backed by the Party of Social Democracy in Romania, the precursor to the modern-day Social Democratic Party. He was eliminated in the first round with 19.3% of the vote, losing to incumbent Viorel Lis. He ran again in 2000, achieving the highest first-round total but losing in the second round with 49.31% to winner Traian Basescu's 50.69%.
He was one of the independent candidates running for president of Romania in the presidential elections which took place on 22 November 2009. He was eliminated in the first round with 3.18% of the vote, and was involved in a notable Condorcet cycle with Mircea Geoana and eventual winner Traian Basescu.
He was a senator representing the Social Democratic Party 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 refused to nominate him to the mayoral elections, he ran as an independent candidate. He earned the most votes in the first round of the elections. In the second round against the Democratic-Liberal Party candidate Vasile Blaga, with the support of the Liberals and Social-Democrats, he won with 56.55% of the vote. Nevertheless, the Social-Democrat mayor of Bucharest's Sector 2, Neculai Onţanu, announced he supported Blaga, while the Social-Democrat mayor of Sector 5, Marian Vanghelie, announced he would not support Oprescu and accused him of being a "cheap demagogue".

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