Romanian professor and politician
Emil Constantinescu
(
Romanian pronunciation:
[e?mil
konstanti?nesku]
ⓘ
) (born 19 November 1939) is a Romanian professor and politician, who served as the
President of Romania
, from 1996 to 2000.
After the
Romanian Revolution of 1989
, Constantinescu became a founding member and vice president of the
Civic Alliance
(AC). In addition, he also served as the acting president of the
Democratic Romanian Anti-Totalitarian Forum
, the first associative structure of the democratic opposition in post-1989 Romania, which was later transformed into a
centre-right
political and electoral alliance known as the
Romanian Democratic Convention
(CDR).
[1]
He had also subsequently presided the
People's Action
(AP) party from the early 2000s until it merged into the
National Liberal Party
(PNL) in 2008. Nowadays, Constantinescu remains involved in
Romanian politics
solely to a limited extent.
Early life and education
[
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]
Emil Constantinescu was born on November 19, 1939, in Tighina, Tighina county (today, Republic of Moldova). His mother, Maria Georgeta Colceag, was born in Ploie?ti on April 24, 1916, and, after graduating from high school, was a student at the Bucharest Conservatory in the harp class, but gave up her career in music to follow her husband, Ion Constantinescu. He was originally from Oltenia, he had 8 brothers, and after becoming an agronomist engineer, he was assigned to Bessarabia. The Constantinescu family took refuge in 1943 in Br?detu village, Arge? County where Emil Constantinescu spent his childhood. His sister, Marina, was born in 1942, and in 1946, his brother, Cristian, was born.
In the period 1953?1956 Emil Constantinescu was a student of the "Nicolae B?lcescu" High School in Pite?ti (currently Colegiu IC Bratianu) and obtained his Matriculation Diploma on July 19, 1956, in the same year he enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University Bucharest. He obtained a Diploma in Legal Sciences in 1960 and after completing his military internship in Piatra Neam?, he began his work as a trainee judge at the Pitesti Regional Court, economic section. The political climate causes him to give up this position and become a student at the Faculty of Geology ? Geography, between 1961 and 1966. He holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Bucharest and a Doctor of Sciences from Duke University, US. In 1963, he married Nadia Ileana, a lawyer, who was his colleague at the Faculty of Law in Bucharest. His father died in 1991 and his mother died at Elias Hospital on November 25, 2011.
Professional career
[
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]
He went through all stages of his university career as an assistant and lecturer at the Faculty of Geology (1966?1990). Since 1991 onwards, he is a professor of Mineralogy at the
University of Bucharest
. He was also a visiting professor at
Duke University
in the
United States
between 1991 and 1992. He was elected vice-rector (1990?1992) and rector (1992?1996) of the University of Bucharest; president of the National Council of Rectors from Romania (1992?1996); member of the Permanent Committee of the Association of European Universities ? CRE (1992?1993; 1994?1998); member of the International Association of University Presidents ? IAUP (1994?1996).
He is the author of 12 books and over 60 studies in the field of geology, published in prestigious scientific journals in the country and abroad. He is also Honorary Member and Elected Member of the Geological and Mineralogical Societies of the
United Kingdom
,
Germany
, US,
Greece
, and
Japan
; of the Geographical Society of
France
and the
National Geographic Society
of the USA.
He gave lectures at the Universities of Tubingen, Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, Columbia ? New York, Georgetown ? Washington, Indiana ? Bloomington, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Prague, Turku, Cairo, Lublin. He was awarded the
Romanian Academy
Award for scientific contributions in the field of geology (1980); Palmas Academicas, awarded by the
Brazilian Academy of Letters
, Rio de Janeiro (2000); gold and honorary medals of the
Comenius University
in Bratislava;
Charles University
in Prague and
University of Sao Paulo
; Arthur Bertrand Medal, awarded by the Academy of Sciences, Institut de France; medals awarded by the National Institute of Sciences and Arts of France, the
University of Paris?Sorbonne
and the
University of Amsterdam
.
Political activity (1990?1996)
[
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]
After the fall of the communist dictatorship, he engaged along with other university colleagues and renowned Romanian intellectuals in the effort to re-democratize Romania, in the defense of fundamental human rights and freedoms as well as in the establishment of the civil society. He was one of the personalities who protested against the anti-democratic actions of the new authorities during a 42-day rally, between April and May 1990, in Bucharest's University Square.
After the bloody violence committed by the miners who, at the call of the then president Ion Iliescu, invaded Bucharest in June 1990, he founded, together with his colleagues, professors, and students, the association
Solidaritatea Universitar?
(i.e.
Academic Solidarity
).
He was also a founding member and vice-president of the Civic Alliance (1990), the most important non-governmental organization in the country, and president of the Civic Academy. These associations joined the opposition democratic parties and together formed the Romanian Democratic Convention (or CDR for short) in 1991. At the proposal of the Academic Solidarity, supported by the Civic Alliance (PAC), Emil Constantinescu was designated the CDR candidate in the
presidential elections of 1992
. He entered the second round and obtained 38% of the votes in the confrontation with then incumbent president Ion Iliescu who was supported by the
Democratic National Salvation Front
(FDSN). After this first important political experience, the CDR elected, in 1992, its president and sole candidate for the
presidential elections of 1996
(which was represented by Constantinescu). He continued to act to strengthen the democratic opposition throughout this period of time from 1992 until 1996, alongside other notable CDR political leaders.
Presidency (1996?2000)
[
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]
In 1996, he competed once again for the presidency as the CDR's candidate and managed to defeat Iliescu in the second round, securing a victory by a margin of roughly 10%. CDR's success in the
1996 general election
marked the first
peaceful transition of power
in post-1989 Romania. On the day he took office, he suspended his membership from the PN?-CD, as the
Constitution
precludes a president holding formal membership of a political party during his term(s).
Throughout his sole four-year term, Constantinescu struggled with the ineffective implementation of the processes of
privatization
, which, bogged down by excessive bureaucracy, increased unemployment and poverty in the short term. After another two
Mineriads
which took place in 1999 (one in
January
and the other in
February
), culminating with the arrest of
Miron Cozma
, the remainder of his term suffered a political crisis between the majority parties that, at the time, formed the governing coalition (i.e. CDR, PD, PSDR, and UDMR/RMDSZ). The country was further damaged by a drought in 2000. At the end of his term in 2000, he decided not to run for re-election, stating that the system had defeated him.
One of the last gestures made as president of Romania was the pardon of Ion Coman, the one who had led the repression of the
1989 revolution
in
Timi?oara
.
[
citation needed
]
Post-presidency
[
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]
Constantinescu's presidency along with CDR's governance were marred by an economic recession. Despite this, his presidency has been eventually credited with putting an end to the
Mineriads
, a reform of the banking system as well as with the attraction of the first major foreign investments in Romania after 1989. With dashed expectations of an immediate improvement in daily life, Romanians exhibited strong disillusionment with the major parties and politicians of the CDR at the end of the 1996?2000 legislature, with the
Greater Romania Party
(PRM) subsequently gaining the second place in the
2000 legislative election
.
A disenchanted Emil Constantinescu, who lost popularity and had failed to fulfil his reformist agenda announced on 17 July 2000 that he would not run for a second term.
[2]
He temporarily withdrew from political life at the end of his term in November 2000. Constantinescu's direction in foreign affairs continued however after the comeback of
Ion Iliescu
in 2000. Eventually, Romania
joined NATO in 2004
and the
European Union
(EU) three years later, in 2007, alongside
Bulgaria
.
The former president returned to the political scene in 2002 as head of the
People's Action
(AP;
Ac?iunea Popular?
) party, which subsequently merged within the
National Liberal Party
(PNL) in 2008.
[3]
Constantinescu had occasionally criticized the policies of the 2004?2014 president,
Traian B?sescu
, accusing him of authoritarian tendencies,
[4]
and supported
Crin Antonescu
in the first round of the
2009 presidential elections
.
[5]
Nowadays, he still remains heavily involved in politics through working for many NGOs, both in Romania and internationally. Emil Constantinescu is the current president of the Association of Citizenship Education, of the Romanian Foundation for Democracy
[6]
and also the founding president of the Institute for Regional Cooperation and Conflict Prevention (INCOR).
[7]
A frequent speaker at the
Oslo Freedom Forum
, in 2010 he presented the OFF with a presidential medal.
[8]
He is also a member of the international advisory council of the
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
.
[9]
Honours and awards
[
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]
National honours
[
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]
Foreign honours
[
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]
Electoral history
[
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]
Presidential elections
[
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]
Election
|
Affiliation
|
First round
|
Second round
|
Votes
|
Percentage
|
Position
|
Votes
|
Percentage
|
Position
|
1992
|
CDR
|
3,717,006
|
|
2nd
|
4,641,207
|
|
2nd
|
1996
|
CDR
|
3,569,941
|
|
2nd
|
7,057,906
|
|
1st
|
External links
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]
References
[
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]
Bibliography
[
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]
- Ion Alexandrescu, Stan Stoica, Romania dup? 1989. Mic? enciclopedie, Editura Meronia, Bucure?ti, 2005
- Tom Gallagher, Furtul unei na?iuni. Romania de la communism incoace, Editura Humanitas, Bucure?ti, 2004
- Dan Pavel, Iulia Huia, "Nu putem reu?i decit impreun?." O istorie analitic? a Conven?iei Democratice, 1989?2000, Editura Polirom, Ia?i, 2003
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