Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu (Oltenița, Kingdom of Romania, March 3, 1930) is a Romanian politician and statesman, former president of Romania for two terms. Iliescu is widely recognized as a predominant figure in the first fifteen years of post-revolution politics. During his tenure, Romania joined NATO.

Biography

Early years and entry into politics

Born in Oltenița, Iliescu studied fluid mechanics at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and then as a foreign student at the Institute of Electrical Engineering in Moscow. During his stay in Moscow, he was secretary of the "Romanian Students Association", it is alleged that he met Mikhail Gorbachev, although Iliescu always denied this. Later, however, former president Nicolae Ceaușescu probably believed that there had been a connection between the two, as during Gorbachev's visit to Romania in July 1989, Iliescu was sent out of Bucharest to avoid any contact. Iliescu married Nina Șerbănescu in 1951; they are childless, not by choice, but because they couldn't, as Nina had three miscarriages.

He joined the Union of Communist Youth in 1944 and the Communist Party in 1953 and made a career in the Communist nomenclature, becoming secretary of the Central Committee of the Union of Communist Youth in 1956 and a member of the Central Committee of the Party Romanian communist. At one point, he served as head of the Central Committee's Propaganda Department. Iliescu later served as Minister of Youth-related Affairs between 1967 and 1971. During most of the 1980s (si not before), he was followed by the Securitate (Romanian secret police), as they were known to oppose Ceaușescu's harsh government.

Romanian Revolution

Iliescu (center) with the members of the FSN Dumitru Mazilu (left) and Petre Roman (right) on 23 December 1989, one day after the formation of the FSN.

The Romanian revolution began as a popular revolt in Timișoara. After Ceaușescu was overthrown on December 22, the political vacuum was filled by an organization called the National Salvation Front (FSN: Frontul Salvării Naționale), spontaneously formed by second-ranking members of the communist party opposed to Ceaușescu's policies and participants not affiliated in revolt. Iliescu was quickly recognized as the leader of the organization and therefore of the provisional authority. He first learned of the revolution when he noticed that the Securitate was no longer following it.

The Ceaușescus were captured, court-martialled, and executed on Christmas Day. Years later, Iliescu admitted that the trial and execution were "rather shameful, but necessary" to end the chaos that had divided the country since the overthrow of Ceaușescu.

Iliescu did not renounce communist ideology and the program he initially presented during the revolution included the restructuring of agriculture and the reorganization of trade, but not a shift to capitalism. These views were also held by other members of the FSN, like Silviu Brucan, who claimed in the early 1990s that the revolution was against Ceaușescu, not communism. Despite this, Iliescu proposed multi-party elections and an "original democracy".

Presidency

Iliescu together with U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002

The National Salvation Front decided to organize as a party and contest the 1990 Romanian general election—the country's first free election in 53 years—with Illiescu as its presidential candidate. The FSN won a landslide victory, winning strong majorities in both chambers. In separate presidential elections, Iliescu won handily, taking 85 percent of the vote, still the highest proportion of votes for a free presidential election. He thus became the first democratically elected head of state in Romania.To date, it is the only time since the end of communism that a president has been elected in a single round.

Iliescu and his followers broke away from the Front and created the Democratic Front for National Salvation (FDSN), which later became the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR), then the Social Democratic Party (PSD). Progressively, the Front lost its character as a generic national government or coalition, and became vulnerable to criticism for using its appeal as the primary institution involved in power-sharing, while engaging in political battles with forces that could not enjoy this power. status, or credibility.

Romania adopted its first post-communist constitution in 1991. In the 1992 Romanian general election, Iliescu won his second term when he received 61% of the vote in the second round. He immediately suspended his NSDF membership; the Constitution does not allow the president to be a formal member of a political party during his term. He ran for a third time in the 1996 Romanian general election but, stripped of his media monopoly, he lost in the runoff to Emil Constantinescu, his 1992 runoff opponent. More than 1,000,000 votes were cancelled, which led to allegations of widespread fraud. However, Iliescu conceded defeat just hours after polls closed, making him the only sitting president to lose a re-election bid since the end of communism.

In the 2000 Romanian general election, Iliescu ran again and won in the second round against ultranationalist Corneliu Vadim Tudor. He began his third term on December 20 of that same year and ended on December 20, 2004. The center-right was heavily defeated during the 2000 elections due in large part to public discontent with the harsh four-year economic reforms. as well as political instability and infighting within the multi-party coalition. Tudor's extreme views also ensured that most urban voters either abstained or elected Iliescu.

In the April 21, 2005 Social Democratic Party internal elections, Iliescu lost the party presidency to Mircea Geoană, but was elected the party's honorary president in 2006, a position with no official executive authority in the party.

Electoral Summary