Clotilde Armand (USB): “Career politicians could hardly find a job in the real world”

Clotilde Armand was for many the surprise of the June 5 local elections. A French woman who made a career in business received the second-most votes among candidates of the Save Bucharest Union (USB), except for Nicusor Dan. We asked Armand about the advantages of coming from a business background, how she plans to combine her career with the position of local councillor and what made the difference in her case.

Georgeta Gheorghe

You have a business background. Do you think this will be an advantage or a disadvantage in the local political environment?

I was truly surprised at how incompetent some politicians really are! Of course it is an advantage to come from a business environment. It is a sacrifice at the same time, but I fully commit myself to this task. Somebody has to do it, and myself I have always tried to carry my share of the burden.

What are the main differences between a career politician active on the Romanian political scene and someone who entered politics after forging a career in the private sector?

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Most politicians active today in Romania are professional politicians, they do not have a true occupation or skill other than politics. They could hardly find a job in the real world if they had to look for one. Myself I accept this mission for some time, but I will not change my career.

Had you been elected Mayor of Bucharest’s Sector 1, you would have given up on your current position of General manager at Egis Romania and Egis Bulgaria. You recently chose to become a local councilor in Bucharest’s Sector 1. How will this fit in with your current job?

Since January 1^st I work only 4 days out of five. I negotiated with my employer to work less in order to give more time to other activities. Being a councilor will cost me about 4 days per month, The rest of the time, that is, mostly my personal time – the time every citizen should at one point devote for community activities – will be allocated to the construction of USR.

You received a lot of votes, more than any of your fellow USB candidates, excluding Nicusor Dan. What do you think made the difference? Did you and your fellow candidates benefit from the same resources in the elections campaign?

The difference was my French accent! People remember me instantly, giving me a huge advantage. I also started my campaign 2 weeks before the other USB candidates.

We did not benefit from any USB funding – the law is very clear, candidates must finance by themselves their campaign. Myself I had enough savings to contribute to my campaign. There was a risk of losing it all if we did not reach the 3 percent threshold, I am now waiting to be reimbursed since we received close to 30 percent of the votes. We will see now how this process works…

USB attracted a lot of financial support from high-profile business people. How did you convince them to donate for your elections campaign?

This is entirely Nicusor Dan’s merit. He is truly an extraordinary person in Romania’s politics, and some business people are evidently under his spell. Like myself in fact! I would have never considered volunteering to be a candidate, were it not for Nicusor’s example.

We still need financial support to be able to go forward. We invite any person who wants to see a change in the way politics is done in Romania to donate to USB on our web page.

Do you believe your example will be followed by more people? Do you have any recommendations for someone who wants to enter politics?

We are currently processing thousands of applications from prospective USR members. I encourage honest people to enter into politics. It is their country after all, and it is natural to make sacrifices for one’s country. My recommendation would be: never go into politics along with dubious persons. Do not join a political group for material advantages, do not associate with dishonest people. Right now for instance, we will reject hundreds of applications from people who were formerly members of the established parties like PSD, PNL, ALDE, UNPR, UDMR, PDL. Although some of them may well be sincere, we do not wish to associate ourselves with anybody who belonged to those parties. The reason is very clear: directly or indirectly they are the political offsprings of the FSN. They are full of dishonest politicians, some of them convicted, most of them compromised.

We want to change the way politics is being done; we want to free Romanian society, its administration, its local communities, its business communities from the influence of politics, which is still the major player in Romania as it was 26 years ago. We want to free Romania from the „system”. For this, the system must die.

I would advise the citizens who want to enter into politics for the sake of their country not to trust that the system can change from the inside. Only with pressure from the outside things will change. Exactly like in the competitive world.