Republican Party's Coita running for Bucharest general mayor

National leader of the Republican Party of Romania Alexandru Coita on Tuesday announced he was running for the office of Bucharest general mayor.

"I have decided to launch my bid after waiting for days, weeks, for a better man to come, a man more competent than me that would take up such a bid. In the end, the Republican Party and I decided that Bucharest needs an alternative, that it is our duty to offer people this alternative and I have taken up being the alternative," Coita told a meeting in Piata Universitatii, where he unveiled his bid.

He added that Bucharest needs "something else" and that it deserves "a normal man" for its General City Hall.

"Bucharest right now is a European city that is at its wits' end. It is a city over which dust has settled, it is the city of projects that have been initiated and abandoned, a metropolis that boasts the inauguration of infrastructure projects that had to be completed many years ago. (...) I am from Bucharest: I was born in Bucharest, I grew up in Bucharest, I left Bucharest to study abroad, in the United States, in the UK, in France and in Italy and I returned to Bucharest because this is home to me. The time has come for me to give something back to Bucharest," said Coita.