Nicușor Dan

Nicușor Dan (born 20 December 1969) is a Romanian activist, mathematician, former member of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania as well as founder and former leader of the Romanian political party Save Romania Union (USR).

He won first prizes in the International Mathematical Olympiads in 1987 and 1988 with perfect scores.

Dan moved to Bucharest at the age of 18 and began studying mathematics at the University of Bucharest.

In 1992, he moved to France to continue studying mathematics: he followed the courses of the École Normale Supérieure, one of the most prestigious French grande écoles, where he gained a master's degree.

In 1998 Dan completed a PhD in mathematics at Paris 13 University, with thesis "Courants de Green et prolongement méromorphe" written under the direction of Christophe Soulé and Daniel Barsky.

He returned to Bucharest that year, giving as reasons for his return his inadaptation to the French culture and the desire to change Romania.

Nicușor Dan was one of the creators and the first administrative director of the Școala Normală Superioară București, a university set up on the model of the French École Normale Supérieure within the Romanian Academy's Institute of Mathematics.

, he was a professor of mathematics at the institute.

In 1998, Dan founded Asociația "Tinerii pentru Acțiune Civică" ("Young People for Civic Action" Association), for which he wanted to gather a thousand young people who wanted to change Romania, which was his stated goal for returning to the country.

Despite failing in its goals, the association did organize two forums for young people who studied abroad, in 2000 and 2002, to which a few hundred people participated.

As result of these forums, the "Ad Astra" Association of Romanian researchers was created in 2000.

Dan founded the Asociația "Salvați Bucureștiul" ("Save Bucharest" Association) in 2006 as a reaction to the demolition of architectural heritage houses and the building of high-rise buildings in protected Bucharest neighborhoods, as well as the diminishing number of green space areas in Bucharest.

In March 2008, the association published the "Bucharest, an urbanistic disaster" Report, which discussed Bucharest's problems and ways to overcome them.

In the same year, during the elections, together with other NGOs, the association drafted a Pact for Bucharest, which was signed by all the candidates for mayor of Bucharest.

The association was also able to push some changes in 2009 to the urban planning law.

Nicușor Dan announced his candidacy for Mayor of Bucharest in November 2011 at a café on Arthur Verona street, with just a few guests, among which Theodor Paleologu, a historian and Member of Parliament.

For gathering the 36,000 signatures needed for his candidacy, having the backing of no party, he relied on a network of volunteers organized on Facebook.

On 22 April, 15 bands and musicians performed pro-bono at Arenele Romane for Dan's campaign in order to help him gather the signatures.

During the 12-hour-long concert, volunteers gathered 4,000 signatures.

Among his proposed projects are the creation of a light rail infrastructure over the existing rail lines in Bucharest, creating an infrastructure for prioritizing public transport over other traffic in intersections, consolidating buildings that are likely to be affected by earthquakes, protecting the urban green space and clearing illegal buildings from parks.

Dan argues that it is important to incentivize young people to stay in the city, by making it a regional hub in IT, creative industries and higher education, and attracting investors and skilled people from across the region.

He received support from Andrei Pleșu, who argued that Dan is the only one of the candidates who is interested in the architecture of Bucharest and does not support any utopian initiatives.

He also received support from political scientist and Member of the European Parliament Cristian Preda.

Dan gained the support of some journalists who wrote about him in op-eds from several newspapers: Andrei Crăciun of Adevărul saw in him "a Don Quijote untouched by the vulgar lard of undeserved riches" and "a person who works against the system".

Florin Negruțiu, the editor-in-chief of Gândul thought he is an "atypical candidate" for Bucharest, the model candidate of the intellectuals; nevertheless, the journalist did not see any chances that Dan would become mayor, because he is "too serious" a candidate, and unlikely to appeal to the masses.

Neculai Constantin Munteanu from Radio Free Europe wrote that he supports Dan for his unselfish way of caring about Bucharest and that his opponents are "comedians", for which one can "admire the imposture, ludicrousness, and incompetence".

On April Fools' Day in 2012, Dan published a list of 100 electoral promises made by elected mayor of Bucharest Sorin Oprescu which were not kept, including the "Pact for Bucharest".

The association was involved in many trials, winning 23 trials against the local authorities of Bucharest.

Among them are the cancellation of a project which would have built a water park on 7 hectares of Tineretului Park, saving from demolition a number of heritage buildings on Șoseaua Kiseleff no. 45, and the cancelation of a project which would have built a glass building on top of Palatul Știrbei on Calea Victoriei.

Having registered Save Bucharest Union (USB) as a political party in 2015, Nicușor Dan ran again for Mayor of Bucharest in 2016.

This time, the elections were held in a single round.

He gained 30,52% of the total votes, losing to the socialist candidate, Gabriela Firea, who gained 42,97% of the total votes.

In the election, Dan managed to attract the young electorate, with over half of his voters being under the age of 40.

Some of USB's candidates for sector mayor have also performed well in their respective races, proving USB's viability as a future political force.

Wanting to capitalize on the momentum that saw him gain a third of the votes in the local elections, Dan announced shortly after the 2016 local election that the Save Bucharest Union will change its name to Save Romania Union (USR), shifting its focus to a national stage.

He also announced plans for the new party to enter the Parliamentary elections of that year.

With Nicușor Dan at the top of the candidate list, USR gained 8.92% of the vote in the Senate race and 8.87% in the Chamber of Deputies, which made them the third largest party in Romania.

The result also meant that Dan became a member of the Chamber of Deputies.

He is currently serving as the Mayor of Bucharest following the 2020 Romanian local elections as independent politician.

Born in Făgăraș, Brașov County, he attended the Radu Negru High School in his native city.