Dominic Fritz, the mayor of Timisoara, the third largest city in Romania, said in an interview with the Hungarian Voice that Hungarians should visit Timisoara because they can feel at home thanks to the Hungarian heritage, but at the same time they can experience something new and different in the city. The mayor got to this position in a somewhat interesting way, as he won the 2020 local elections without having Romanian citizenship.
According to him, the campaign was positive, as this form can be effective if it appeals to people's emotions.
Fritz first visited Timisoara in 2003 to volunteer at a local orphanage run by Father Berno Rupp. His work remained linked to Timisoara in the following years, as he returned several times a year to carry out various social and cultural projects, and he also bought an apartment in the city of Timisoara.
He has been nominated as a candidate for mayor of Timisoara in the 2020 Romanian municipal elections. Fritz was able to run for mayor thanks to a law that allowed any EU citizen to run for mayor in Romania after 2015, as long as they are a resident of that municipality.
In the elections of 27 September 2020, Dominic Fritz won 54.88% of the vote and became Mayor of Timisoara.
Timisoara officially became the European Capital of Culture in February 2023 and is looking forward to a year of events, with more than a thousand events and over a million visitors. During the opening weekend of the European Capital of Culture Timisoara 2023, more than 130 events were held in the city in the Banat region. More than 800 people were involved in the organisation and implementation of these events, 500 of them volunteers from home, Serbia and Japan.