Simona Halep is widely considered as a national hero in Romania, especially after she won a historical Roland Garros.
The world no.1 had a fantastic reception in Bucharest where she enjoyed a tremendous ceremony in front of 20,000 fans.
What happened
Unfortunately, things didn’t go very smooth during the event as the Bucharest Mayor Gabriela Firea was heavily booed when she went on the stage to hand the key of the city to Simona.
At first, Firea hit back, claiming that civic groups allied to George Soros conspired to ‘compromise the event.’ Unfortunately, things got from bad to worse after she received so many insults on Facebook that she had to shut down her page.
After few days, the mayor regrouped to comment
“I’ve been thinking these days, reflecting on whether what I did was right or not, and I reached a conclusion that I hope others reach as well: good intentions were there from the first moment, but the big regret is that it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it.
I had the best intention, but the result wasn’t what I had planned. It is clear that we were wrong, both my team and I, because in the tense atmosphere of Bucharest a week ago, after the PSD protest, it was clear that it wasn’t the best time and place to hand Halep the key to the city and the excellence diploma.
After I had already awarded Simona Halep with the honorary citizenship in February on the National Arena, where we wholeheartedly organized Simona’s meeting with her fans.”
I had to do something smaller
Then the Mayor added
“I did it because I knew that this is done throughout Europe, it is done in America too, I had seen such events as a journalist. All morning last Monday I was criticized for not organizing something special for Simona more quickly, and I thought I’d be accused of being ignorant if I didn’t go hand her the key and then go, that was the plan, to hand her the key, to step back and let the show we’ve prepared go forward. I had no intention of staying at the event any longer.
Now in hindsight, we can say anything, and I can say that I should have been wiser or more cautious and should have organized a smaller ceremony either at the City Hall or somewhere else.”
That was unfortunate.
