DOCUMENT Cătălin Drula's campaign video in which Nicușor Dan appears is illegal, the Electoral Office decided. The reaction of the USR candidate

The constituency electoral office in Bucharest (BEM) on Thursday ordered the removal of the video from Facebook in which the USR candidate for the Capital City Hall, Cătălin Drula, the president Nicușor Dan and Vlad Voiculescu appear, because it is “a material with illegal content” from the perspective of the legislation on electoral campaigns and the constitutional provisions regarding the role of the president and the incompatibilities of the position.

• “A decision that we will attack,” Vlad Voiculescu said briefly in a reaction to HotNews. “We will contest it,” said Cătălin Drula, also contacted by HotNews.
• At the time of this article, the video has not been removed from the online environment, and this most likely will not happen until the decision becomes final, given the USR's announcement regarding the appeal of the decision.

On December 2, Vlad Voiculescu, the leader of USR Bucharest and honorary presidential adviser, posted on Facebook a video in which he talks with the president Nicușor Dan and Cătălin Drula at the reception organized on the occasion of December 1 at the Cotroceni Palace.

In Thursday's decision, the Electoral Office ordered Ireland-based Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (MPIL), the provider of Facebook's online platform service, to remove both the original video and “all related material”.

“The material provided in the annex to this decision is of a nature and is designed to influence the outcome of some elections or voting behavior”, established the Electoral Office of the Electoral Circumscription no. 42 – Bucharest Municipality.

The forum said the content of the post showed it was “political advertising material”.

“The political advertising material that is the subject of the analysis of the Electoral Bureau of Circumscription No. 42 – Bucharest Municipality represents a video made in an official setting, specific to the Presidential Administration, in which the President of Romania appears, and the message presented has an electoral character, being intended to influence the vote option in favor of the candidate/party supported”, the explanation of the decision also states.

“The President of Romania must be equidistant”

The Electoral Bureau said that from Article 80 of the Romanian Constitution, which establishes the role of the president, and Article 84, the one regarding the incompatibilities of the position, the Electoral Bureau said that “it follows that the President of Romania must be politically independent, not belong to any party and be equidistant to all political parties and to all electoral competitors”.

Article 14 of Law no. 334/2006 regarding the financing of the activity of political parties and electoral campaigns, which prohibits “the use of financial, human and technical resources belonging to public institutions, autonomous governments, national companies, companies regulated by the Companies Law No. 31/1990, republished, with subsequent amendments and additions, or credit institutions in which the state or administrative-territorial units are the majority shareholders, to support the activity political parties or their electoral campaign, other than under the conditions established by the electoral laws”.

“In conclusion, this material represents a material with illegal content”, it is also stated in the decision of the Electoral Office of the Electoral Circumscription no. 42 – Bucharest Municipality.

The explanations given by Nicușor Dan after the appearance of the images

Asked by journalists on Wednesday about his presence in the USR election spot, Nicușor Dan said that the images used in the promotion clip of the candidate Cătălin Drula were filmed in public space, just like hundreds of other materials in which the president appears and that circulate in the online environment.

“I was at a reception and I assumed that I was in the public space”, explained the president Nicușor Dan. “It's footage that was shot in a public space that they're allowed to use, just like everyone else, all the other people who put up footage from that reception, they're allowed to use it like everyone else,” he added.

Nicușor Dan was also asked if he only invited Cătălin Drula to the reception or other candidates from the elections for Bucharest. The president said that the invitations were sent to the officials based on objective criteria, and Drula was invited because he is the vice president of the Chamber of Deputies.