'Adrian Nﾄピtase' (born
June 22 1950) is a
Romanian politician who was the
Prime Minister of
Romania from December 2000 to December 2004.
He competed as the
Social Democratic Party (PSD) candidate in the
2004 presidential election, but was defeated by centre-right
Justice and Truth (DA) Alliance candidate
Traian Bﾄピescu.
He was the President of the
Chamber of Deputies from
December 21 2004 until
15 March 2006, when he resigned due to corruption charges.
Biography
Family background
Nﾄピtase was born in
Bucharest to a family that originated from
Hanul de Pﾄノﾃ｢nt village,
Tﾄビtﾄη歹ﾅ殳i commune,
Dﾃ｢mboviﾅ｣a county.
His father, Marian Nﾄピtase, was an officer of the Royal
Romanian Army. His father was marginalized after the rise of communism in 1947, but he got his position back after he joined the
Romanian Communist Party. Soon after, he became part of the Romanian Communist
nomenklatura, serving as director in the Education Ministry. His mother is named Elena and he has a sister, Dana Barb (''nﾃｩe'' Nﾄピtase).
Communist period
Adrian Nﾄピtase finished high school at
Nicolae Bﾄネcescu High School (now
Saint Sava National College) and then graduated from the
University of Bucharest, receiving degrees from both the Department of Law and the Department of Sociology. He worked at various times as a professor, judge, and as president of several organizations involved with law and international relations.
While a student, he married the daughter of Communist dignitary
Grigore Preoteasa but then divorced her. On 31 July 1985, he married
Dana Miculescu, the daughter of
Angelo Miculescu, another important Communist personality. They have two sons, Andrei (b. 12 February 1986) and Mihnea (b. 23 June 1993).
As was the case with many of Romania's post-1989 political elites, Nﾄピtase was a member of the Romanian Communist Party before the Revolution during the era of
Nicolae Ceauﾅ歹scu. Although he was young, he was trusted by senior Communist leaders and sent as Romania's representative to various international conferences on
human rights. He published many Communist apologist articles in the Romanian press, such as the one called "Human rights - a retrograde concept", in which he attacked the
Freedom House for its annual "rank" which called Communist Romania a "Not Free" country.
Nﾄピtase, 1983
In 1989, he participated in a Romanian-Soviet Youth conference in
Moscow and another one in
Pyongyang,
North Korea. In an interview given to Russian
Komsomolskaya Pravda he talked openly against
Perestroika.
Goﾅ殷, 2004
Post-1989 political career
Nﾄピtase was first elected to the
Chamber of Deputies of Romania as member of the
National Salvation Front party on
June 9 1990 and served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the governments of
Petre Roman and
Theodor Stolojan (
June 28,
1990–
October 16,
1992).
In 1992, he was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the Democratic National Salvation Front (FDSN) and served as the President of the Chamber of Deputies. Between 1993 and 1997, he was also the executive president of the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR, formerly the FDSN).
Since the early 1990s, Nﾄピtase's nickname has been "Bombonel" ("Candyboy"), pointing to his alleged homosexuality. While homosexuality was illegal during
Romania's communist regime, a February
1975 informative statement to the police by history professor Ioan D. Suciu mentioned Nﾄピtase along with others on a list of known people with homosexual inclinations. The veracity of the statement remains in doubt, as well as the alleged origin and authenticity of the document.
When the PDSR lost the
1996 elections, Nﾄピtase became leader of the opposition PDSR parliamentary group, vice-president of Chamber of Deputies, and member of Standing Bureau and Member of the Romanian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe where he was the Recording Secretary of Council of Europe commission on judicial problems and human rights with reference to illegal activities by
religious sects.
After the victory of the PDSR in the 2000 legislative elections and the re-election of
Ion Iliescu as President of Romania, Nﾄピtase was elected president of the PDSR, which soon changed its name to the
Social Democratic Party (PSD) after merging with another party. Nﾄピtase remained
PSD president until April 2005 when he was replaced as
PSD president by former foreign minister
Mircea Geoanﾄ at a
PSD party congress. At the same congress, Nﾄピtase was elected to be PSD executive president, the second most senior position in the party.
Term as Prime Minister of Romania
Nﾄピtase was confirmed by the Parliament as Prime Minister on
December 28 2000, following his appointment to the position in days before by President
Ion Iliescu. He held the position concurrently with his leadership of the
PSD. His four years as Prime Minister were characterized by unprecedented political stability in post-communist Romania, continuous economic growth, and a foreign policy strongly oriented toward the West. Romania joined
NATO, and committed Romanian troops in support of international efforts in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
His government completed accession negotiations with the
European Union (EU) and aggressively passed legislation and implemented a number of reforms required for EU accession, anticipated to take place in 2007 or 2008. His government successfully negotiated the lifting of visa restrictions on Romanians traveling to EU
Schengen treaty countries.
The privatization of large state-owned companies continued, with the selling of money-losing steel enterprise
Sidex of
Galaﾅ｣i to the
Indian company
Ispat and of the oil company
Petrom to
Austrian company
OMV.
Adrian Nﾄピtase with George W. Bush
decreased and the
Romanian leu became stronger. However, critics pointed out that this was at least partially due to an influx of foreign currency into Romania from the estimated two million Romanians working abroad. GDP also grew substantially during each year of his term, with a growth of 8.3% achieved in 2004, the highest in the region. Average wages similarly grew, although they did not match the pace of economic growth. For example, in 2004 wages grew by 10.4%, with a 9.2% inflation rate, thereby leading to a real wage growth of 1.2%, in a year when GDP grew by 7%.
The Nﾄピtase government did not make substantial inroads on a number of important issues in Romanian society, such as agricultural policy: about 42% of Romanians continued to work in agriculture (compared to 3% of
French and 19% of
Poles). Critics also pointed out that economic growth was not evenly distributed among the social classes, and the percentage of people living below the poverty level remained high, especially in the rural areas.
Although the government took initial steps toward meaningful judicial reform, the government was repeatedly criticized, including by the EU, for failing to combat substantially widespread corruption, including at the highest levels.
2004 presidential candidacy
The 2004 presidential election cycle marked the end of the second term of President
Ion Iliescu, who, according to the constitution, could not serve another term. The
PSD selected Nﾄピtase to be its presidential candidate. His running mate (selected to be prime minister in the event of a Nﾄピtase win) was then Foreign Minister
Mircea Geoanﾄ.
Throughout the autumn of 2004, opinion polls predicted Nﾄピtase would win, boosted in areas and among sectors where the
PSD traditionally received strong support: in rural areas, in small and medium sized towns in the south and east of the country, and among pensioners and labor groups. The PSD, which remained by far the largest single political party in the country, was also expected to rely on its network of local party organizations to ensure voters came to the polls.
Nﾄピtase was ahead by a substantial margin during the
November 28 first round of the
presidential elections, although he received less than 50 percent of the vote, and therefore was required to compete in a
December 12 run-off election against second place center-right
Justice and Truth (DA) Alliance candidate
Traian Bﾄピescu. Independent civil society organizations alleged incidents of fraud in Nﾄピtase's favor during the first round of the elections, including alleged multiple voting by PSD supporters as a result of poor controls on voter identification, and flaws in the electronic vote tabulation.
At the time the polls closed on the evening of the run-off election, major media outlets released the results of exit polls showing a tie between Nﾄピtase and Bﾄピescu. Nonetheless, Bﾄピescu and his supporters interpreted the results as clear indication of a victory. Tens of thousands of Bﾄピescu's supporters converged on
University Square in the center of
Bucharest, and in other parts of the country, to celebrate his presumed victory. The next morning, authorities released figures confirming Bﾄピescu's win. Nﾄピtase received only 48.77% of the total vote.
Nﾄピtase later attributed his surprise defeat to a number of factors, including what he characterized as a failure of
Humanist Party politicians to campaign on his behalf (the Humanist Party had an electoral pact with the PSD at the time); and the endorsement of Bﾄピescu by
Greater Romania Party (PRM) leader
Corneliu Vadim Tudor. Other likely factors include Bﾄピescu's strong performance during the second presidential debate, as well as persistent allegations of corruption against Nﾄピtase and the PSD.
Despite Nﾄピtase's presidential defeat, the PSD still won the largest bloc of seats in the Parliament in the concurrent legislative elections. Following the elections and in the interim period before Bﾄピescu's DA Alliance was able to form a coalition majority, the PSD succeeded in obtaining sufficient support within the parliament to elect Nﾄピtase as president of the
Chamber of Deputies. Former PSD Prime Minister
Nicolae Vacaroiu was elected president of the
Senate in the same circumstances. Nﾄピtase resigned as Prime Minister the day after Bﾄピescu's inauguration.
Allegations of corruption and other controversies
Beginning before his period as prime minister, Nﾄピtase was implicated in varying degrees in a number of financial scandals. Scandals accumulated toward the end of his premiership, ultimately leading in 2006 to a series of criminal charges and his
March 15,
2006 resignation as speaker of the lower chamber of parliament and as executive president of the Social Democrats.
Allegation regarding highway construction concessions without competitive bidding
In 2003 and 2004, Nﾄピtase was accused of giving construction rights for one motorway (
Braﾅ殪v–
Borﾅ) without a competitive and open bidding process, to the American
Bechtel Corporation after some high level talks between Nﾄピtase and the company leadership. The Nﾄピtase government claimed that this no-bid process was a necessity based on the short time allowed under their agreements with international funders to get the project started, and defended it as legal on the basis that it was a "national security" project.
[1] The government also argued that it had negotiated a fair and competitive price with Bechtel. The failure to undertake a bidding process resulted in general outcry, both inside and outside
Romania. The
European Union expressed its concern regarding the validity of this transaction and its lack of transparency. In addition,
European Commission officials complained that the highway was not included in the EU's greater plans for constructing a highway system in the region. These concerns increased when, after high level talks with French officials, construction rights for the
Cﾃ｢mpina -
Sinaia highway were awarded in a similar manner to French companies. Despite the outcry, the construction of both highways remained extremely popular in Transylvania, and the center-right
Tﾄビiceanu government continued the projects after Nﾄピtase left office.
===2003-2004
PSD transcripts===
Closely guarded text transcripts of PSD meetings surfaced on an anonymous website just before the
2004 Romanian presidential election. In the transcripts, Nﾄピtase and his ministers allegedly discuss plans to illegally interfere in judicial processes to achieve political goals; and to suppress media reporting negatively on the PSD. Nﾄピtase asserted that the transcripts were fake, but several party members, including Foreign Minister and PM candidate
Mircea Geoanﾄ, said they were indeed genuine.
2004 Attempts to censor media
In 2004, with the increasing pressure of the electoral campaign, Nﾄピtase as prime-minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party PSD allegedly attempted to censor Romanian mass-media. Most TV channels in Romania were – and for that matter, are – under heavy debt, including for failing taxes. In 2004 threats were reportedly issued against the stations that did not provde favorable coverage of Nﾄピtase and the PSD prior to and during the electoral campaign period, including allegedly threats to revoke broadcast licenses. This was reportedly to have been the case with
PRO TV – the largest Romanian TV station, with a
market share of 40% – and its mother company,
Prima TV with a market share of 5% and
Realitatea TV. The other main private channel,
Antena 1, with 20% market share, was owned by
Dan Voiculescu, president of the very small
Humanist Party (PUR). The PSD thereby formed an electoral alliance with the PUR, an apparent attempt to ensure positive coverage on Antena 1 by promising 35 seats in the parliament for the much smaller party.
Romanian State Television (TVR) with a 20% share, concentrated especially in rural areas, was put under strong control and direct censorship, a reminder of bygone communist times, in order to show only the positive deeds of the government and the downsides of the opposition. Strong attacks were launched against
Theodor Stolojan and
Traian Bﾄピescu. Thus, 90% of TV in Romania was strongly influenced through intimidation by the PSD. Print media was also controlled, as most newspapers rely on social advertising issued by the government, and that was given only to pro-Nﾄピtase publications, and strictly controlled. Some newspapers, such as ''Naﾅ｣ional'', were completely taken over ideologically by the PSD. The only newspapers not affected were ''
Evenimentul Zilei'' and the
satirical ''
Academia Caﾅ｣avencu'', which sold in record numbers during the campaign as they showed evidence of corruption and mishaps in the government. These papers were strongly criticized in all other media. After the victory of the opposition, most newspapers switched sides or adopted a neutral position.
2004 secret meeting recording
In October 2004 Nﾄピtase was recorded in a PSD meeting showing his concern about an alleged 700 million
USD bribe received by a government member upon the privatization of state-run petroleum company
Petrom. Nﾄピtase has been recorded saying: "Today I have asked the General Prosecutor to investigate this, because if someone from the Government got $700 million and did not bring in his contribution to the election campaign, then he is twice guilty." An article, including the audio recording
[2], was published by ''
Evenimentul Zilei'' on
December 4,
2004. Adrian Nﾄピtase declared afterwards it was only a joke.
2006 DNA (National Department of Anti-corruption) take Adrian Nﾄピtase to court
In November 2006 a trial began in which Nﾄピtase was charged with several counts of corruption and bribery. Three bank accounts belonging to the ex-prime minister have been frozen. According to the prosecutors, the amount of money obtained illegally totals more than 竄ｬ 1 million.
[3]
Gifts from Ion ﾅ｢iriac
On
4 November, 2004, Nﾄピtase received from
Ion ﾅ｢iriac a
Mercedes S500 (worth USD100,000) for a bet they had
[4]. The Romanian law requires high-ranking officials to declare any gift worth more than USD200 in less than 30 days after they received it, but Nﾄピtase failed to declare it as of
7 December. Both ﾅ｢iriac and Nﾄピtase stated that the bet was actually a joke meant to create publicity for a government project aimed at building over 400 gyms.
In the TV debate of the presidential election, Nﾄピtase declared that he was considering quitting his hobby of
hunting. However, on
22-
23 January 2005, Nﾄピtase took part in a
boar hunt in
Bﾃ｢lc,
Bihor, which was dubbed a 'massacre' by the Romanian press, ecologist organizations and other hunters. In the two-day hunt, 185 boars were killed, 23 by Adrian Nﾄピtase.
[5] (Romanian only)
The hunting property Nﾄピtase uses is rented and maintained by ﾅ｢iriac, who invests heavily in it (in the range of millions of
USD) and uses it to invite very important and wealthy persons from all over the world to facilitate business deals.
2006 Dacian gold Scandal
Adrian Nﾄピtase was named, together with
Dan Iosif,
Sergiu Nicolaescu and
Ioan Talpeﾅ as part in another case investigated the National Anti-corruption Department, involving ancient
Dacian artifacts retrieved from
Sarmizegetuza Regia, worth 竄ｬ 1.5 million.
2006 "Aunt Tamara" Scandal
In January 2006, Nﾄピtase included on a legally required wealth disclosure statement an inheritance of over 1 million euros from his wife's elderly aunt. Nﾄピtase claimed that the aunt, who had lived modestly on a pension, had come upon the fortune by selling jewels she had owned for decades and investing some of the funds in real estate. The explanation did not seem credible to many in the public, and the media speculated that the Nﾄピtases used the inheritance as an opportunity to launder money and carry out illegal land deals. Nﾄピtase "temporarily suspended" himself as executive president of PSD while prosecutors investigated the alleged crime.
Undervalued land leads to resignation of posts
In 1998, Nﾄピtase bought (through some middlemen) a 700 mﾂｲ lot in a posh neighborhood of
Bucharest, from controversial businessman
Gabriel Bivolaru, for a price that was estimated by real-estate agents to be less than 1/25 of its worth. On this land, his company built a luxury apartment building. Initially, an inquiry by the National Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office failed to bring charges. In November 2005, the case was reopened by the prosecutors and on
7 February 2006 he was officially charged with taking a bribe and with trafficking influence.
As a result of this charge, Nﾄピtase lost a vote of confidence among his party窶冱 leadership and was forced to resign on
March 15,
2006 as speaker of the lower chamber of parliament and as executive president of the Social Democrats.
Other criticism
Adrian Nastase is the owner of a chicken farm. In front of the press(the discussion was about his wealth), Adrian Nastase said:
"Someone wanted to come and count my chickens. I would suggest him he would better count my eggs(in Romanian eggs also means balls)"
"Cineva voia sa vina sa-mi numere gainile. I-as sugera mai bine sa-mi numere ouale"[1]
Asked by a journalist whether he knows anything about a press scandal about his
sexual orientation, Adrian Nastase said:
"I am not scared of any sexual scandal with which I will be soon threatened by the employers of a newspaper which criticises me every day. If Evenimentul Zilei employers want from me a proove I don't have homosexual inclinations, I will test all their wifes, so that they are convinced about my sexual inclinations.Intrebat de un jurnalist de la 窶彁iarul de Sibiu窶 daca are cunostinta ca i s-ar pregati un scandal in presa legat de inclinatiile sale sexuale, Adrian Nastase a lansat un atac abject la adresa 窶廢venimentului zilei窶: 窶廸u mi-e frica de nici un scandal sexual cu care voi fi amenintat in curind de angajatii unui ziar care ma tot critica in fiecare zi. Daca cei de la 窶廢venimentul zilei窶 vor sa le demonstrez ca nu am inclinatii homosexuale, o sa le testez toate nevestele lor ca sa se convinga in legatura cu inclinatiile mele sexuale窶[2]
Publications
Nﾄピtase has published over 150 pieces on
International law in Romanian and foreign journals, and has held over 140 talks at international meetings; publications include:
★ ''Human Rights: a Retrograde Concept''
★ ''The Political Idea of Change''
★ ''International Economic Law II''
★ ''Parliamentary Humor''
★ ''Romania and the New World Order''
★ ''The Construction of Europe and Constitutional Supremacy''
★ ''Romania's Treaties (1990–1997)''
★ ''Personal Rights of the National Minorities''
★ ''Regulations in International Law''
★ ''The Battle for Life''
★ ''Romania-
NATO 2002''
★ ''NATO Enlargement''.
See also
★
List of national leaders
★
List of Prime Ministers of Romania
External links
★
Official blog
★
Adrian Nﾄピtase - Official site
★
Adrian Nﾄピtase on Politic.ro
★
''Evenimentul Zilei'' article on the alleged $700m Petrom bribe, includes audio footage
★
Transcripts of PSD meetings
★
Recordings of secret sessions rock PSD
References
1. Evenimentul zilei:Pe Basescu l-au lasat nervii
2. [6]
★ Goﾅ殷, Armand,
"25 noiembrie 1989: Nﾄピtase, avocatul lui Nicolae Ceauﾅ歹scu" ("
November 25, 1989: Nﾄピtase, advocate for
Nicolae Ceauﾅ歹scu"), ''
Evenimentul Zilei'', December 3, 2004;
★ Nﾄピtase, Adrian, "Drepturile omului, un concept retrograd" ("
Human Rights - A Retrograde Concept"), ''Concepﾅ｣ii ﾅ殃 controverse ﾃｮn domeniul drepturilor omului, ﾃｮn viitorul social'', magazine of the
Academia ﾅ柎efan Gheorghiu, Jan-Feb 1983, 45-50. Reprinted by ''
Academia Caﾅ｣avencu'',
16 November, 2004 in its
''Scﾃｮnteia'' supplement, a collection of authentic articles written during
Communist times by today's politicians, in a format parodying the official
Communist Party paper ''
Scﾃｮnteia'';
★ Roibu, Iuliana
"Autostrada Borﾅ-Braﾅ殪v, construita de Bechtel" ("
Borﾅ-
Braﾅ殪v motorway to be built by
Bechtel"), ''
Evenimentul Zilei'',
December 16,
2003.
★
Realitatea TV,
Adrian Nﾄピtase, pus sub acuzare February 7,
2006
★
Gﾃ｢ndul,
"Adrian Nﾄピtase ﾃｮn atenﾅ｣ia DNA ﾃｮn dosarul 窶暸urul Dacic窶",
8 March 2006
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