Clotilde Armand
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Clotilde Marie Brigitte Armand (born 28 June 1973) is a
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
-born
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
n politician and businesswoman. Since October 2020, she is Mayor of Bucharest's
Sector 1 Sector 1 is an administrative unit of Bucharest located in the northern part of the city. It contains also the northwestern districts of Băneasa and Pipera. Sector 1 is thought to be the wealthiest sector in Bucharest. Like each of Bucharest sect ...
. Armand first ran for Mayor of Sector 1 in the
2016 Romanian local elections Local elections were held in Romania on 5 June 2016. Using a first past the post system, the following were contested: * All the commune, town, and city councils (Local Councils, ro, Consilii Locale), and the Sectors Local Councils of Bucharest ...
on behalf of
Save Bucharest Union The Save Bucharest Union (''Romanian: Uniunea Salvaţi Bucureștiul'') was a local Romanian political party that later became the Bucharest branch of the Save Romania Union (''Romanian: Uniunea Salvați România'', USR) operating in Bucharest, Ro ...
(USB), a local party she had co-founded in 2015, eventually losing narrowly after having been announced as winner by the exit polls. From July 2019 until November 2020 she was a
Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
.


Early life and education

Clotilde Marie Brigitte Armand was born in
Pointe-à-Pitre Pointe-à-Pitre (; gcf, label=Guadeloupean Creole, Pwentapit, , or simply , ) is the second largest (most populous) city of Guadeloupe after Les Abymes. Guadeloupe is an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in the ...
, France, where her father was undergoing alternative military service as a mathematics teacher. Her family was from
Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a Spa town, spa and resort town and in World ...
, where she also attended primary and secondary school. She studied at the École Centrale Paris and then the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
, where she met her future husband, Sergiu Moroianu, a Romanian mathematician. She married Moroianu in 1997 and moved to Bucharest in 1999. In the following years, she lived some years in France and Germany, before settling in Bucharest again in 2003.


Career

In 2002, Armand worked for
Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
in France and Germany, managing part of the
A380 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...
project management team. In 2005, she became IT Director of
Distrigaz Sud Distrigaz Sud is a major player on the Romanian natural gas market being responsible for distributing gas in the southern part of Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southe ...
, the Romanian branch of gas distribution giant GDF Suez, later moving to Paris as Innovation Director for GDF Suez Europe. Between September 2013 and March 2017, Armand was the head of the Romanian and Bulgarian branches of French engineering company Egis. She acquired Romanian citizenship in 2015.


Political career


2016 local elections

Nicușor Dan, a political activist and friend of Armand's husband, founded a new party called Save Bucharest Union. Armand was chosen by the party to be their mayoral candidate for Bucharest's Sector 1 and began organizing her campaign only six weeks before the deadline. Her campaign was based on anti-corruption and against politics as usual, arguing that "the political class has been separated from the true will of the people". She promised better management of public services, following the
urban design Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, cities, and regional spaces, urban de ...
model of Paris (replacing the car-centered model with a
public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
model) and building an esplanade surrounding the lakes in the northern part of the sector. Although exit polls and early results indicated she was the winner, the final results showed that she lost to
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...
's Dan Tudorache, who received 23,220 votes (31,07%), while Armand received only 21,504 votes (28,77%). Nicușor Dan, the president of SBU noted some statistical discrepancies: in the precincts where the party had observers, Armand won by a slim margin, whereas in the precincts where it did not have observers, Armand lost. Also, the number of canceled votes was substantially higher in those precincts and there were discrepancies between the number of ballots given to each precinct and returned. A member of the Electoral Bureau told the press that the reason of the discrepancies was that electoral precinct presidents were "idiots" who filled in wrongly the forms. While not accusing anyone of vote fraud, Armand asked for a recount in 18 precincts. The Sector 1 Electoral Constituency Bureau refused the recount, arguing that the "lack of diligence" of her party (for not being represented in all precincts) was not the fault of the Electoral Bureau. Around 500 supporters of Armand organized a protest in University Square, demanding a recount. Armand had also sent an objection of unconstitutionality, arguing that the
plurality voting system Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which a candidate, or candidates, who poll more than any other counterpart (that is, receive a plurality), are elected. In systems based on single-member districts, it elects just one member per ...
is flawed because in her the mayor was elected by only 10% of the constituents. The objection has been accepted and forwarded to the Constitutional Court. She was on both the Save Bucharest Union's lists for the Bucharest and Sector 1 councilors and, after the elections, she chose to be a Sector 1 councilor.


Member of the European Parliament, 2019–2020

In the 2019 European elections, Armand was fourth on the USR-PLUS list (first woman) and she won an MP seat. Armand is one of only two women among the eight MP elected on the USR-PLUS list. She served on the
Committee on Budgets The Committee on Budgets (BUDG) is a committee of the European Parliament. It has 41 members plus 39 substitute members. The committee's current chair is Jean Arthuis, who has held this position since 7 July 2014.MEPs Against Cancer MEPs Against Cancer is a group of 130 Members of the European Parliament who aim to "promote action on cancer as an EU priority and harness European health policy to that end" and to encourage every country to develop a national plan for combati ...
group.


Controversy

Immediately after entering politics in 2016, Armand was accused that, in her capacity of director of Egis Romania, she personally profited from a motorway building contract gone awry between the Romanian state company CNAIR and Bechtel Corporation. Armand denies vigorously any involvement in the Bechtel affair. She responded that she started working for Egis only in September 2013, months after CNAIR's contract with Bechtel ended (in March 2013); that Egis verified the quality of the works of Bechtel, was not bound by contractual links to Bechtel, and defended the interests of its client CNAIR; that moreover she was not a stakeholder in Egis. In spite of her explanations, Armand is frequently depicted in some media venues as having "cashed 50 million dollars from Bechtel".


Political positions

Armand argues that Romania needs a change of the political class. She wrote an open letter to President
Klaus Iohannis Klaus Werner Iohannis (; ; also spelled Johannis; born 13 June 1959) is a Romanian politician, physicist and former teacher who has been serving as the president of Romania since 2014. He became leader of the National Liberal Party (Romania), Na ...
in which she asked the two main parties of Romania (the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party, both of which have roots in the National Salvation Front) to apologize for their involvement in the
June 1990 Mineriad The June 1990 Mineriad was the suppression of anti- National Salvation Front (FSN) rioting in Bucharest, Romania by the physical intervention of groups of industrial workers as well as coal miners from the Jiu Valley, brought to Bucharest by the ...
and to remove former president Ion Iliescu and former Prime Minister Petre Roman from public life. Armand says she does not believe in the left–right politics paradigm, arguing that, in Romania, the money wasted due to corruption is far higher than the differences between standard left and right policies. Nevertheless, she considers herself, within the French political context, a person that is naturally right-wing, but that Romania currently has many people who need the help of the state and that these people, who did not adapt to the changes and are no longer useful to society, should be re-integrated.


Electoral history


Mayor of

Sector 1 Sector 1 is an administrative unit of Bucharest located in the northern part of the city. It contains also the northwestern districts of Băneasa and Pipera. Sector 1 is thought to be the wealthiest sector in Bucharest. Like each of Bucharest sect ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Armand, Clotilde 1973 births Living people 21st-century Romanian politicians 21st-century Romanian women politicians Councillors in Romania Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Mayors of the sectors of Bucharest MEPs for Romania 2019–2024 Naturalised citizens of Romania People from Pointe-à-Pitre Romanian businesspeople Romanian people of French descent Romanian Roman Catholics Save Romania Union MEPs Save Romania Union politicians