Dominic Fritz has announced his colleagues in an internal group that he will run for the head of the USR. He asks the party a “strategic reset” / Who has announced its candidacy
The interim president of the USR and the mayor of Timișoara Dominic Fritz announced on Monday evening, on the party's internal groups, the candidacy for the head of the political formation. In a message that covers almost two pages, obtained by Hotnews, he sends USR members that the party should be one with a center doctrine, in the context in which USR presents itself as “modern-right-right”.
Dominic Fritz is the only important leader in the party who announced his candidacy for the position of president. The deadline for submitting candidates is Monday, June 2, 11:59 pm, so Fritz took this step in the last hours before the term expires.
In addition to Fritz, among the names known in the public space in the USR, he also announced his candidacy for the head of the party and Violeta Alexandru, former PNL minister in Orban governments, who entered the USR at the end of August 2024, which is about 10 months ago.
A former PNL minister, USR member of less than a year, is applying for the party leader
In addition to Dominic Fritz and Violeta Alexandru, another 10 members were registered at the head of USR, according to HotNews sources, but they are considered in the party to be “without chances”: it is: Constantin Gheorghiță (Diaspora branch), Marin Ciubăncan (Cluj), George Ungureanu (Tulcea), Andreea Cristian Ianc (Bihor), Luiza Elena Oancea (Diaspora), Vasile Gabriel Filip (Constanța) and Alex Cojocaru (Bucharest), Eduard Răducan (Argeș) and Mihai Mihăilă (Bacău).
Previously, he told about the announcement of Dominic Fritz's candidacy at the head of USR and G4media.
What promises Dominic Fritz USR-Iștilor: “Let's be bigger, stronger”
In the message transmitted on the party's internal group, obtained by Hotnews, Fritz says that the current political context in Romania offers the chance that USR will “become the main party in Romania”: “I want to be part of this road and that is why I run for the USR Presidency.”
“I am with all the primary heart of Timisoara. I have never aimed to take an extra position. But I feel like I have a responsibility to give the party from what I succeeded with the team from Timișoara: beyond the good local government, I woke the big ambitions, the aspirations for more good for a majority of Timisoara,” Fritz wrote.
He recalls that he managed to win the second term of mayor of Timisoara: “USR reconfirmed as the main political force of the city.”
“I want to build together that vision that can turn us from a niche party, of the Great Urban, in the most important political force of Romania, which wins the elections. I know that we want everyone and especially that this is what they want USR voters: to be bigger, stronger, to talk to us. Fritz.
Dominic Fritz wants to change the doctrine of the party: “Where our current voters are”
He says that his vision of USR contains “a new political contract for a modern and integrating Romania”.
“I started from the question: what should the USR do to win the elections, as Nicușor Dan managed? Nicușor Dan won with a central, pragmatic and unifying election strategy, without giving up his values. It is what we did to win the mayors in cities and communes,” Fritz believes.
He says that in his victory Nicușor Dan addressed “to all citizens, from all social categories”: “Mobilized those who want a modern Romania, not one who returns in time, who want an open society and a functional democracy, not closing, hatred and division. And these voters are everywhere, in the city”.
“They represent the center that rejects both the feudal type policy practiced by the classic parties, but also the radical and irresponsible populism of gold. This is the new political axis of Romania. The USR must be found in the center, where both our current voters and others who have chosen Nicușor Dan, but are not yet the USR,” the USRs'.
“Strategic reset” proposed by Dominic Fritz
He says he proposes to his colleagues a “strategic reset”.
“A center party, in the strategic sense, which puts in the heart of its concerns the society, in all its diversity. Which is addressed politically, through communication and solutions, to the great, small and rural. Let us ask each day: What are the citizens of the USR? Let us not be afraid of our diversity and to use it, but to use it, but to use it, Society, ”says Fritz.
The message regarding the doctrine of the party comes in the context in which the USR presents itself as a “modern center-right” party, including on its own site.
Dominic Fritz also specifies that although it does not yet have Romanian citizenship, the president of the USR, according to the Romanian legislation.
“I assure you that I take this step after discussing important lawyers from Romania, with a practice of decades, including in constitutional law. Getting citizenship, which I want so much, is just a bureaucratic matter, with the file submitted for one year and with all the conditions fulfilled,” gives insurance.
Finally, in his message Dominic Fritz says he is aware of “the responsibility on the shoulders of the next president”.
“I trust that I will be able to cope with the challenges if we keep close. I will not be an always convenient president, but I promise that I will be a president who will always put the interest of the party, in all its diversity, in the first place. I am very proud of this USR and I wait for us together, for Romania.
Dominic Fritz is currently interim president of the USR, after the resignation of Elena Lasconi, caused by the failure in the presidential elections. Fritz was previously the vice president of the party. Fritz is, from 2020, and mayor of Timișoara, located in the second term, after winning the local elections of June 2024.
Dominic Fritz was one of the main communicators of the party especially since the National Office of the Political Formation (of which Fritz was part), decided, during the election campaign for the first tour of this year, not to support his own candidate – Elena Lasconi, the party leader at that time.
USR chooses in June the 6th president from the establishment
USR will have a congress on June 21, the date by which the new president of the political formation will be chosen, which will be validated by the Congress – a bureaucratic step. The internal electoral calendar approved by USR leadership at the end of May is the following:
- May 29 – June 2, 2025 – the period of candidates' submission
- 11 – 13 June 2025 – Tour 1 (electronic vote)
- June 14 – 15, 2025 – centralization Results Tour 1 and Tour setting 2
- June 16 – 18, 2025 – Tour 2
The vote for the USR president will be a direct and secret one, by all the party members, on an online secured platform.
The president chosen after these elections will be the sixth of the history of the party, after Nicușor Dan, Dan Barna, Dacian Cioloș, Cătălin Dula and Elena Lasconi.
