Nicușor Dan

Some Lesser Known Facts About Nicușor Dan

• Nicușor Dan participated in the International Mathematical Olympiads in 1987 and 1988 and stood first.

• When he was 18 years old, he moved to Bucharest from Brașov County.

• In 1992, he shifted from Bucharest to France to study mathematics.

• His Ph.D. thesis was “Courants de Green et prolongement méromorphe,” and he wrote it under the guidance of Christophe Soulé and Daniel Barsky.

• After completing his Ph.D., Nicușor Dan returned to Bucharest because of the cultural differences.

• In 1998, he started the ‘Young People for Civic Action’ Association and gathered 1,000 young people who wanted to transform Romania.

• The association did not fully succeed, but it organised two forums (in 2000 and 2002) for young people who were studying abroad.

• The creation of the ‘Ad Astra’ Association of Romanian researchers in 2000 was one of the results of these forums.

• In 2000, he wrote an article in which he criticised the public displays of homosexuality in Romania. He called it against traditional values.

• In 2006, Nicușor Dan started the ‘Save Bucharest’ Association.

• In March 2008, the association published a report titled ‘Bucharest, an urbanistic disaster’ in which it explained the problems in the city and its solutions. The problems included the destruction of heritage buildings, the rise of tall buildings in protected areas, and the loss of green spaces in Bucharest.

• During the 2008 elections, the association and other NGOs created a ‘Pact for Bucharest,’ which was signed by all mayoral candidates.

• In 2009, the association helped in changing the urban planning laws in Bucharest.

• In November 2011, Nicușor Dan announced at a small event in a café on Arthur Verona Street that he would contest the Mayor of Bucharest elections.

• During the event, only a few people were present, including Theodor Paleologu, a historian and Member of Parliament.

• He had no political party support. So, he used Facebook to gather volunteers and collect the 36,000 signatures needed to contest the elections.

• Nicușor Dan then started Școala Normală Superioară București, a university modelled after the French École Normale Supérieure, and became its first administrative director.

  

• Later, the university became a part of the Romanian Academy’s Institute of Mathematics.

• In 2011, he began working as a mathematics professor at the institute.

• In 2012, on April Fools’ Day, he published a list of 100 promises made by the then Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu that were not fulfilled.

• His ‘Save Bucharest’ Association took part in many court cases and won 23 times against Bucharest’s local government.

• Some major wins include stopping a water park project planned for 7 hectares of Tineretului Park, saving heritage buildings at Șoseaua Kiseleff no. 45 from demolition, and cancelling a project that would have added a glass structure on top of Palatul Știrbei on Calea Victoriei.

• On 22 April 2012, 15 music bands performed for free at Arenele Romane during his political campaign and collected 4,000 signatures in 12 hours.

  

• He wanted to make Bucharest a place where young people wanted to stay. He wanted to improve the IT sector, industries, rail system, public transport, old buildings, green spaces in the city, and higher education and attract investors and skilled workers from the region.

• Nicușor Dan was supported by Andrei Pleșu and Cristian Preda, a political scientist and Member of the European Parliament.

• Many journalists supported him and wrote about him in newspaper opinion articles.

• A journalist named Andrei Crăciun (Adevărul) called him ‘a Don Quijote’ and ‘someone fighting against the system.’ Florin Negruțiu (Gândul) wrote that he was a candidate who was serious about his country’s development and was preferred by intellectuals.

• In 2015, he turned Save Bucharest Union (USB) into a political party.

  

• In 2016, Nicușor Dan contested for the Mayor of Bucharest elections and lost to Gabriela Firea.

• In the elections, he was supported by young people. Some USB candidates performed well in other local elections.

• After getting about one-third of the votes in the 2016 local elections, he decided to expand his party. Save Bucharest Union (USB) became the Save Romania Union (USR), which started working at the national level.

• In the 2016 parliamentary elections, USR got 8.92% of the vote for the Senate and 8.87% for the Chamber of Deputies. This made USR the third-largest party in Romania, and Dan became a Member of Parliament (Chamber of Deputies).

• In 2017, a group called Coaliția pentru Familie gathered signatures and held a referendum, which demanded a change in the Constitution to restrict marriage as only between a man and a woman.

• This caused disagreement within USR when the progressive side wanted USR to be the only party in Parliament to oppose the referendum. Dan disagreed and said that the party should stay neutral and include both progressives and conservatives.

• After that, USR held an internal vote in which 52.7% voted to oppose the referendum. As a result, he resigned from the party on 1 June 2017.

• In the media, Nicușor Dan said that he left because his religious beliefs did not match the party’s new direction. He wanted USR to focus on anti-corruption, not social issues. He did not want to be at a party that only focused on civil liberties.

• After leaving USR, he stayed in Parliament as an independent Member of the Chamber of Deputies.

• In May 2024, before local elections, a document went viral, claiming that he once worked with the secret police (Securitate) during communist times, and he reported on his classmates. However, the official council that studies Securitate files (CNSAS) declared that the document was fake.

• In 2024, Nicușor Dan contested for Mayor of Bucharest as an independent.

• He was supported by three parties named Save Romania Union (USR), People’s Movement Party (PMP), and Force of the Right (FD), which formed the United Right Alliance (ADU) to oppose the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) alliance.

• The Renewing Romania’s European Project (REPER) party also supported Dan, but was not part of ADU.

• Dan won the 2024 Bucharest mayoral election with 48% of the vote and announced plans for two referendums to give the General Mayor more power.

• On 14 October 2024, a conflict started between Dan and Sector 4 Mayor Băluță over unauthorised construction at Piața Unirii, the largest square in central Bucharest, Romania.

• He interrupted the construction and claimed that the work lacked permits and was corrupt. This led to a dispute with Sector 4 police, who blocked access to the site.

• Nicușor Dan returned to Piața Unirii with documents and bulldozers to stop the unauthorised construction, but Sector 4 police blocked him again, leading to tension and public suspicion of mafia ties.

  

• After Prime Minister Ciolacu interfered, Mayor Băluță backed down, and the site was demolished.

• Dan started an investigation and declared plans for a referendum to give more power to the General Mayor over sector mayors.

• After the Piața Unirii incident, many people in Bucharest believed Dan as a strong opponent against corruption and the PSD-PNL political alliance.

• On 16 December 2024, Nicușor Dan announced that he would contest for president in the 2025 Romanian election.

• His decision to contest for president caused a break with Elena Lasconi, who was a former supporter and also contested in the annulled 2024 election.

• Both Dan and Lasconi appealed to similar voters, such as liberals, progressives, moderates, pro-Europeans, and those who were against PSD and PNL.

• The Constitutional Court approved his candidacy on 16 March 2025, along with George Simion and Victor Ponta.

  

• On 22 March 2025, a draw put his name at the bottom of the ballot paper.

• In the first round of voting on 4 May 2025, he stood second with 20.99% of the votes.

• On 18 May 2025, he competed against his opponent George Simion in the final round and won the presidency with 53.6% of the vote.

  

• He supports Romania being close to the West, especially after joining the European Union and NATO, which he sees as important to the country’s safety and growth.

• In his 2025 presidential campaign, Nicușor Dan stood for Western democratic values and supported NATO’s presence in Romania during the Russian attack on Ukraine. However, his opponent, George Simion, had nationalist and anti-EU views.