USR President, Dominic Fritz, congratulated Octavian Ursu on Sunday for his victory in the German elections.
“The Romanian and European Octavian Ursu won his second term as mayor in Germany, in Görlitz. He again beat a far-right candidate in the second round. It’s his victory, but it’s also a victory for European values”wrote Dominic Fritz on his Facebook page.
According to the USR leader, Görlitz is a city located directly on the border with Poland, and the city’s heating is done together with the Polish city of Zgorzelec. He also stated that in this locality “Polish is spoken as naturally as Hungarian is spoken here in Timișoara”.
“A city led by a Bucharest citizen with dual Romanian and German citizenship. “Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Oberbürgermeister Octavian Ursu” (in translation: “Congratulations, Mr. Mayor Octavian Ursu”). We are waiting for you in Timișoara”Dominic Fritz added.
Who is Octavian Ursu?
The candidate of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the German of Romanian origin Octavian Ursu, was re-elected mayor in the city of Gorlitz, in eastern Germany, known as “German Hollywood”.
He won his first term in the 2019 election, when all the main parties backed Ursu to defeat far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate Sebastian Wippel.
Octavian Ursu graduated from the Conservatory and came to Germany in 1990 as soloist-instrumentalist (trumpet) at the Gorlitz Philharmonic. Ursu joined the CDU in 2009 and in 2010 took over the leadership of the Gorlitz municipal constituency of the conservative party. IN 2014, he was elected to the legislature of the state of Saxony, of which Gorlitz is a part, according to DW.
Gorlitz is located on the border with Poland and is the easternmost German city. The town, a picturesque medieval town, which hosts 57,000 people, is often chosen by Hollywood film studios and films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel, Inglourious Basterds or The Reader were filmed here.
The case of the Romanian women caught in the explosion in Germany
Gorlitz is also where a historic building collapsed in a gas explosion. Two tourists from Romania, aged 25 and 26, were reported missing following this incident. Later, the bodies of the two were found under the rubble of the collapsed apartment building.
The explosion occurred on May 18 this year, at around 5:30 p.m., in a building in the center of Görlitz that housed apartments for rent and had recently been renovated. Following the explosion, the building collapsed completely.
The two Romanian women were on their first day of vacation, together with the husband of one of them. The man escaped with his life after leaving the building to do some shopping.
