Liviu Dragnea

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Liviu Dragnea (2014)

Liviu Dragnea (born October 28, 1962 in Gratia , Teleorman district ) is a Romanian politician of the Partidul Social Democrat (PSD) party. In October 2015 he became chairman and successor of Victor Ponta, who resigned from the party office in July 2015 . From the general election in 2016 until his arrest in May 2019, he was also President of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies .

Life

Origin and occupation

Dragnea's father was the police chief of his home village. He himself studied engineering at the Universitatea Națională de Apărare "Carol I" and at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest . After graduating in 1987, he worked as an engineer in a factory in Craiova . Immediately after the 1989 revolution , he opened several village bars. In the course of the privatization of former public property, he was able to acquire a hotel and several restaurants in the town of Turnu Măgurele at very low prices . As early as 1995 he was one of the leading business people in the Teleorman district in southern Romania .

District politician and minister (1996-2015)

In the local elections in 1996 he was elected to the city council of Turnu Măgurele . From 1996 to 2000 he was a member of the Partidul Democrat (PD) and Prefect of Teleorman County. After joining the Partidul Social Democrat (PSD), he was elected President of the Teleorman County Council in 2000 and was confirmed in this position in 2004, 2008 and 2012. Due to his long-standing great influence in this circle (whose capital is Alexandria ) he is also dubbed the "Baron" of Teleorman.

From January 20, 2009 to February 2, 2009, Dragnea was Minister of Administration and Home Affairs as the successor to Gabriel Oprea in the Boc I cabinet . December 2012 to 15 May 2015 Dragnea was to succeed Eduard Hellvig in Second Ponta Cabinet , the Cabinet Ponta III and the Fourth Ponta Cabinet Minister for Regional Development and Administration.

PSD Chairman and President of Parliament (since 2015)

Dragnea was the successor to Victor Ponta from July 22, 2015 party chairman of the PSD. On April 22, 2016, he was sentenced to two years probation for attempted election fraud. The Supreme Court thus doubled the ruling of May 15, 2015, which was the reason for his resignation as minister.

After the parliamentary elections in Romania in 2016 , which the PSD won, Dragnea was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies. Since January 30, 2017, he has had to answer to court for abuse of office as district president of Teleorman and forgery of documents with a loss of 100,000 lei. He was accused of employing two women working for the PSD on public payrolls for no consideration. Dragnea declared herself innocent.

Because of his criminal record, Dragnea could not hold the office of prime minister himself, but according to observers exercised the real power in the country. Dragnea was seen as the “puller” of the Grindeanu cabinet and one of the key figures during the protests in Romania in 2017 . In June 2017, he withdrew his support for Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu , excluded him from the PSD and ensured his dismissal by means of a vote of no confidence. Instead, Mihai Tudose became head of government. Other PSD members who stood behind Grindeanu and thus against Dragnea, including the former PSD chairman and Prime Minister Victor Ponta , were expelled from the party.

In November 2017, Romanian prosecutors opened an investigation after the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) provided evidence in 2016 that around 21 million euros had been fraudulently paid to officials of the European Regional Development Fund for road repair contracts . Dragnea is said to have founded a “criminal group” that forged documents in order to illegally obtain EU funds. Dragnea denied any wrongdoing. Parts of his property were confiscated. Prime Minister Tudose also came into conflict with Dragnea and was urged to resign in January 2018. Like Grindeanu, Tudose had refused to press ahead with the judicial reform that Dragnea had wanted to ease the criminal liability of corruption in Romania . He had also urged three ministers close to Dragnea who were suspected of corruption to resign. Instead, Viorica Dăncilă became Prime Minister, a close confidante of Dragnea.

In June 2018, the government tried to restrict the independence of the judiciary and the secret services on the pretext of fighting a "shadow state", put forward by Dragnea. The code of criminal procedure was massively changed in the urgent procedure. Victims should only be allowed to testify in the presence of the perpetrators, and deadlines were shortened to such an extent that judicial investigations had little chance of success. A few days later, Dragnea was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in the first instance for inciting abuse of office.

In August 2018, there were again mass protests against Dragnea's judicial reform, in which 450 people were injured. During a cabinet reshuffle in November 2018, Prime Minister Dăncilă fired several ministers who had criticized Dragnea's authoritarian leadership style. In May 2019, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence. After his arrest, Viorica Dăncilă replaced him as chairman of the PSD. Dragnea, however, challenged her election from prison in court and claimed to continue to be party leader.

Dragnea is divorced and has two children.

Web links

Commons : Liviu Dragnea  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Resignation in Romania, FAZ online page, published on November 4, 2015
  2. ↑ a b Andrei Chirileasa: The rise and fall of Liviu Dragnea, the most powerful politician sent to jail in Romania. In: Romania Insider , May 27, 2019.
  3. ↑ Elizabeth Bouleanu: Liviu Dragnea, baron de Teleorman. In: Adevărul Alexandria April 30, 2014.
  4. ↑ Romania's socialist leader convicted of attempted election fraud. In: derStandard.at of April 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ President of the two chambers of parliament elected. In: General German newspaper for Romania from December 23, 2016.
  6. ↑ a b Frank Stier: Liviu Dragnea. The puller in Romania. In: Cicero of February 10, 2017.
  7. ↑ Tens of thousands of Romanians protest against the government. In: Spiegel Online from February 2, 2017.
  8. ^ Romanian Protests Continue After Corruption Hearing Against Powerful Politician. In: Radio Free Europe of February 14, 2017.
  9. ↑ Florian Hassel: Liviu Dragnea, the actual ruler of Romania. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 3, 2017.
  10. ↑ Keno Verseck : Mass protest against the government. The Romanians have had enough. In: Spiegel Online from February 2017.
  11. ^ Marco Kauffmann Bossart: Citizen Protests in Romania. Swipes from the People's Palace. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from February 13, 2017.
  12. ↑ Andrea Beer: The power-conscious key figure in Romania. In: Deutschlandfunk from February 7, 2017.
  13. ^ Romania corruption: Ruling party chief Liviu Dragnea faces fresh probe . In: Deutsche Welle of November 13, 2017.
  14. ↑ Anger over corruption drives Romanians onto the streets . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of November 27, 2017.
  15. ↑ Prime Minister Tudose resigns. In: Spiegel Online , January 15, 2018.
  16. ↑ Peter Janku: After Tudose cancellation: Romanian democracy at risk. DW, January 16, 2018.
  17. ^ Romania gets head of government for the first time. DW, January 17, 2018.
  18. ^ Eduard Kosminski: Corruption and scandals: Romania gets the third government within a year. In: Ost-Journal , January 31, 2018.
  19. ↑ Dragnea wants to bring the judiciary under control , Echo der Zeit , June 19, 2018
  20. ↑ Romania: Viorica Dancila voted in as first female prime minister. In: Deutsche Welle of January 29, 2018
  21. ^ Liviu Dragnea sentenced to prison. SRF, June 22, 2018
  22. ↑ Srdjan Govedarica: Bucharest on August 10, 2018 - A turning point in violence. ARD, August 13, 2018.
  23. ↑ Romania: Prime Minister Dancila exchanged nearly one-third of her cabinet. In: Die Presse , November 19, 2018.
  24. ^ Head of the Social Democrats in prison . In: Spiegel Online , May 27, 2019, accessed on May 28, 2019
  25. ↑ Revenge from prison: Ex-PSD boss Dragnea challenges successor Dăncilă In: Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung für Romania , 10 August 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Dragnea, Liviu
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Gratia , Romania