section_path: Mayor of Bucharest (2020–2025)/2024 local elections
section_name: 2024 local elections
paragraph_text: 2024 local elections
  
  Following the decision made by the governing alliance between the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) to hold the elections in June 2024, Dan participated once again as an independent for Mayor, for a new term. This time, he was supported by the same USR (Save Romanian Union) party, but also by two other minor parties, the People's Movement Party (PMP) and The Force of the Right (FD) whose president is former PNL leader Ludovic Orban, who left the party in 2021 after losing the presidency of the party to then-prime minister Florin Cîțu; all three formed the United Right Alliance (ADU), an official national opposition to the National Coalition for Romania (CNR) formed by the PSD and PNL. Additionally, the REPER party, headed by former PLUS leader Dacian Cioloș, supported Dan, but was not part of ADU.
  
  The elections were held on 9 June 2024 together with the European Parliament elections in Romania, a controversial move done by the CNR earlier that year. Thought to be a close race up until the last moment, the exit polls showed the result was overwhelmingly in favour of Dan, winning with 45% of the total vote, who declared himself the winner of the race. After the vote count, Dan was the clear winner of the elections with approximately 48% of the total votes, more than double the votes given to the same runner-up from 2020, Gabriela Firea, who placed second with 22%, followed by then Sector 5 Mayor, Cristian Popescu Piedone (16%) and PNL candidate and president for the Bucharest branch of the party, Sebastian Burduja (7.6%).
  
  During his victory speech, Dan declared his intention to organise two referendums for Bucharest, one for centralising more power to the General Mayor of Bucharest regarding building authorisations, a very consistent theme during his campaign, and another for allocating more financial funds to the General Mayor rather than to the Sector mayors. Both were planned to take place on the same day as the parliamentary elections, in order to "reduce organisational costs for separate elections", according to Dan.