Bucharest - Ciprian Ciucu vehemently denied reports of an impending withdrawal from the current election race, directly addressing what he calls a purposeful disinformation campaign aimed at undermining his candidacy and bolstering that of Cătălin Drula, a candidate from USR.
Ciucu alleges a coordinated effort to diminish his standing with voters, specifically to push him into third place, creating pressure for him to concede in favor of Drula. He claims this strategy emerged after attempts to manipulate data on the Polymarket platform – an objective measurement tool – failed to produce polls favorable to Drula. “Their strategy is to drop me to the 3rd place in the perception of the electorate, then to pressure me to withdraw in favor of Cătălin,” Ciucu stated in a social media post.
While acknowledging the source of the “fake news” is not within USR itself, Ciucu vowed to expose those responsible. “I’m not naming them at this stage, but you’ll figure it out,” he wrote.He further clarified,”They are NOT USR,so it is not from this lab that the fake news that I am retiring is coming.”
Ciucu dismissed the reports as a “perverse form of manipulation” and expressed his desire for a campaign focused on policy and debate, rather than “outlaw” tactics.He emphatically stated,”No,I’m not retiring!” and pledged to actively counter the disinformation campaign.
