REPORT. How USR leaders experienced the defeat at the Capital City Hall: from “I say it will be fine” to “Congratulations, Ciprian Ciucu!”

Sunday evening, after 21:00, when I was seeing the first results of the exit polls, the USR candidate for the Capital City Hall, Cătălin Drula, spoke for 3 and a half minutes about Bucharest. Then he left without answering any questions.

The lack of reactions and silence dominated the atmosphere at the USR campaign headquarters on the day of the vote for the mayor of Bucharest. 30 minutes before the exit poll results were announced, USR President Dominic Fritz jumped out of his car directly into the party's headquarters without making a statement.

“I say it will be fine,” he declared, on the go, when asked by reporters what he could say about the election.

Before him, shortly after 8:00 p.m., the candidate Cătălin Drula also arrived at the campaign headquarters, who initially announced that he would not make statements at 9:00 p.m., because he was waiting to see the final results. “Maybe 11 p.m.,” he said. Until 11:00 p.m., however, there was complete silence at the USR headquarters.

What did Cătălin Drula do after the exit poll results

Cătălin Drula saw the results of the exit polls that ranked him in 4th place in the race for Bucharest together with colleagues from the party, such as USR president Dominic Fritz, Environment Minister Diana Buzoianu, former mayor of Sector 2 Radu Mihaiu, senator Simona Spătaru, as well as members from the county branches.

USR headquarters after the end of the elections for the Capital City Hall, December 7, 2025. Inquam Photos / Mălina Norocea

He first waited for the statements of Ciprian Ciucu, Daniel Băluță and those made by Anca Alexandrescu and George Simion.

Then he came out and congratulated Ciprian Ciucu.

“I would like to start by congratulating Ciprian Ciucu, for what seems, according to the exit polls, to be a mandate won as mayor of the Capital. (…) I thank the citizens of Bucharest who gave us their trust and we tell them that we remain with Bucharest. I want this city to flourish, I want any general mayor to be successful, but I believe that this success comes with reforms. That's why I urged Ciprian to have courage for these reforms”, declared Cătălin Drula after the display of the exit polls.

The journalists were also given a microphone to ask the candidate questions: “Do you expect USR to be removed from the government?”, asks a journalist.

“We're not going to take questions now. We're going to take questions from you… We're not taking questions now,” replied Cătălin Drula. Then he climbed the stairs of the headquarters on Kiseleff, followed by party colleagues.

Cătălin Drula, in 4th place

Cătălin Drula ranked 4th in the ranking for Bucharest City Hall, with 13.9% of the votes. The new general mayor is the liberal Ciprian Ciucu, with 36.1% of the votes, followed by Anca Alexandrescu with almost 22%. Daniel Băluță won 20.5% of the votes of Bucharest residents.

In the 2024 local elections, USR won 27.2% of the votes in the General Council, but then it ran in alliance with PMP and Forța Dreptei.