Radu Câmpeanu | |
|---|---|
 Radu Câmpeanu featured inRevista 22, 1990 | |
| Founding Leader of theNational Liberal Party | |
| In office 15 January 1990 – 28 February 1993 | |
| Succeeded by | Mircea Ionescu-Quintus |
| Member of theSenate of Romania | |
| In office 9 June 1990 – 15 October 1992 | |
| In office 13 December 2004 – 14 December 2008 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Radu Anton Câmpeanu (1922-02-28)February 28, 1922 |
| Died | October 19, 2016(2016-10-19) (aged 94) Bucharest, Romania |
| Resting place | Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest |
| Party | National Liberal Party (PNL) |
| Spouse(s) | Monica Papadopol Dina Câmpeanu[2] |
| Children | 1 |
| Residence(s) | Paris (during exile) Bucharest (after returning to post-1989 Romania) |
| Education | University of Bucharest |
| Occupation | Politician,jurist,economist |
| Known for | Re-founding thehistoricalNational Liberal Party (PNL) and contributing to the reinstating ofdemocracy inRomania after 1989 |
Radu-Anton Câmpeanu (Romanian pronunciation:[ˈradukɨmˈpe̯anu]; 28 February 1922 – 19 October 2016) was a Romanianpolitician who was alsojurist andeconomist by profession, after graduating from theUniversity of Bucharest (UB) in November 1945, specializing inconstitutional right.[3][4] During theinterwar period and up until 1945, he was the leader of the National Liberal students' association at nationwide level (the equivalent of today'sNational Liberal Youth Wing or TNL for short).[5]
While in exile abroad inFrance, at some point in time due to the exile ofPaul Goma and his arrival in France as well, Câmpeanu was suspected to have become an informer of theSecuritatea (the Romaniancommunistsecret police), but no conclusive evidence had been produced to support this allegation.[6] Throughout his years of exile, he had worked as an editorialist and as a collaborator for a Radio Univers as well as forRadio Free Europe andBBC.[7] In addition, during the 1980s (for a period of time of seven years), he also worked as an editorialist for his own newspaper, entitled B.I.R.E. (i.e.Buletinul de Informație pentru Români în Exil orThe Bulletin of Information for Romanians in exile). Furthermore, while still in exile, Radu Câmpeanu was the president of the Association of Former Political Detainees from Romania (Romanian:Asociația Foștilor Deținuți Politici din România) as well as a member of the Thinking and Action Liberal Club (Romanian:Clubul de Gândire și Acțiune Liberală, also known as Clubul de Acțiune și Gândire Liberală Românească, Clubul Liberal Român, or Clubul Liberal).[8][9]
Câmpeanu was the first president of the contemporaryNational Liberal Party (PNL) whose term unfolded between 1990 and 1993, a political party he helped re-found in early January 1990, shortly afterthe fall of communism, as well as aSenator on behalf of the PNL between1990 and1992, and then once more between2004 and2008.[10][11]
During the early 1990s, Câmpeanu served as one of the 5 vice-presidents of theProvisional National Unity Council (Romanian:Consiliul Provizoriu de Uniune Națională), also known as CPUN for short, a position which could be equated with that of state vice-president.[12] Câmpeanu participated in the first Romanian presidential debate after 1989, alongsideIon Iliescu of theNational Salvation Front (FSN) andIon Rațiu of theChristian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD), held on 17 May 1990.[13] Câmpeanu subsequently came in second after Ion Iliescu in the1990 Romanian presidential election with 1,529,188 votes or 10.64%. As a politician, according to him, he was a supporter of dialogue between people who have contrary opinions.[14]
Radu Câmpeanu was the leader of the National Liberal students' league at nationwide level beforeWorld War II. On 8 November 1945, several months after the end of World War II, Câmpeanu participated in the first street protest of the civil society (encompassing both students and workers) which were organised in Bucharest against theforcefully-established communist regime by theSoviets in theKingdom of Romania.[15] The respective manifestation was also one of support forKingMichael I. According to Câmpeanu himself, there were between 1,200 and 1,500 students from various university centres who participated in the respective protest which was held on 8 November 1945.[16]
Two years later, in 1947, he was incarcerated by theSecuritate (as many other non- and anti-communist politicians from the historicalPNL andPNȚ) and sent to forced labour for 15 years in the construction of theDanube–Black Sea Canal.[17] Câmpeanu was freed in 1956, 6 years ahead of the planned authoritarian sentence, as part of thede-Stalinization process which theRomanian People's Republic (RPR) undertook during the late 1950s (in essence, a policy of distancing itself fromMoscow's control, thereby breaking free from the USSR satellite status).
On 30 July 1973, with financial help on behalf of his family from abroad (more specifically, fromSwitzerland andFrance), Câmpeanu (at that time aged 55) managed to leavecommunist Romania forParis,France alongside his first wife, Monica Papadopol, and their son, Barbu. The three were ransomed in exchange for approximately 10,000USD.[18]
Câmpeanu remained very active amongst Romanian exiles inWestern Europe up until 1990, when he returned to his home country in the wake of theRomanian Revolution of 1989. While he was away in exile in France, he would lead suchanti-communist andanti-totalitarian organisations as the Community of Romanians in France (Romanian:Comunitatea românilor din Franţa), the National Romanian Council (Romanian:Consiliul Naţional Român), and theUnion of Free Romanians (Romanian:Uniunea Mondială a românilor liberi). He was subsequently awardedFrench citizenship upon personal request, three years after his initial arrival in France, while not forfeiting his native Romanian one in the process. This later allowed him to be a member of theUnion for French Democracy (UDF), a center-right and liberal political party which was presided by formerFrench PresidentValéry Giscard d'Estaing.
On the occasion of an interview given in March 2010 for the Romanian documentary project "Capete Înfierbântate 13-15 iunie 1990", Câmpeanu stated that he was invited at party meetings and political debates in theParliament of France by the Union for French Democracy as an ordinary member.[19] Furthermore, he also stated that he was subsequently invited at political debates in theHouse of Commons inLondon,United Kingdom, thereby enjoying the overall civilised atmosphere from there.
Câmpeanu returned to Romania in early January 1990, right after theRomanian Revolution of December 1989. He immediately set out to re-found the National Liberal Party (PNL), alongside other former liberals who had been incarcerated by the communist authorities, such asDan Amedeo Lăzărescu [ro],Sorin Bottez,Ionel Săndulescu,Nicolae Enescu, andDinu Zamfirescu.
Câmpeanu ran againstIon Iliescu in the1990 Romanian presidential election, on behalf of the PNL while being at the same time endorsed by theDemocratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) and theEcologist Party of Romania (PER) respectively. He finished second with 10.64%, or 1,529,188 votes. Subsequently, he retained the honorific title of "1990 Founding President" of the party and was a member in theCentral Political Bureau of the PNL up until his death in October 2016.
During the early 1990s, he was the vice-president of theProvisional Council of National Unity (Romanian:Consiliul Provizoriu de Uniune Națională) in theParliament of Romania as well as the vice-president of theSenate between 1990 and 1992. Also, during his term as PNL president, the National Liberal Party acceded to governance in the relatively technocraticnational union government led byNational Salvation Front (FSN)Prime MinisterTheodor Stolojan between 1991 and 1992.
After 1993, when he lost the presidency of the PNL to his older colleagueMircea Ionescu-Quintus, Câmpeanu left the party along with a group of followers to establish a splinter political party called PNL-C (Romanian:Partidul Național Liberal-Câmpeanu) which, after 10 years, would be re-integrated within the main PNL.
Additionally, in 1991, Câmpeanu withdrew the PNL from theRomanian Democratic Convention (CDR) mainly because of the CDR's integration of the UDMR and the lack of will on behalf of Câmpeanu to run on common lists along with the Hungarian minority's ethnic party for theParliament of Romania, as later stated by Câmpeanu himself in an edition of theMilionarii de la miezul nopții (Midnight millionaires; the predecessor ofMarius Tucă Show) at some point during the late 1990s.[20] This resulted in several splinters from the PNL which would eventually join the CDR, most notably PNL-CD led byNiculae Cerveni. Other PNL splinter groups which decided to remain within the CDR were PNL-AT andPL '93.
Subsequently, Câmpeanu ran for a second time forPresident on 3 November 1996, when he was supported by PNL-C and theGreen Alternative Ecologists' Party (Romanian:Partidul Alternativa Verde-Ecologiștii) under the official platformNational Liberal Ecologist Alliance (Romanian:Alianța Național Liberală-Ecologistă). He failed to gain enough votes to enter a second round and obtained a very feeble total amount of 0.3% of all ballots cast in the first round, ranking 12th. At some point in the 1990s, Câmpeanu also proposed a possible candidacy ofKingMichael I for president, which was met with harsh criticism on behalf of both his fellow party colleagues and a vast amount of the electorate and civil society.
From 1995 up until 2003, Radu Câmpeanu was the leader of a splinter liberal party issued from the main PNL which was calledNational Liberal Party–Câmpeanu (Romanian:Partidul Național Liberal-Câmpeanu). Throughout the 1990s, PNL-C refused to be (re)integrated within the main PNL and partake in the CDR-led governance from 1996 to 2000. However, it did contest the1996 general andlocal elections where it scored very modest results. More specifically, PNL-C won only 15 mayoral seats in 1996 and failed to gain any parliamentary presence as the National Liberal Ecologist Alliance (ANLE), with a very feeble electoral score of 0.79% for theChamber of Deputies and 0.70% for theSenate respectively.
At the2000 general election, PNL-C scored better than it did in 1996, ranking 9th with 1.22% at the Senate and 1.40% at the Chamber. Nonetheless, these results were still very modest and beneath the then parliamentarian threshold of 3%. In 2003, PNL-C merged with the main PNL and Câmpeanu was elected senator in the2004–2008 legislature in theRomanian Parliament on behalf of theJustice and Truth Alliance (DA).
After 2008, Radu Câmpeanu did not run for another term as senator but gained the position of honorary founding president of the PNL until his death in 2016. In 2012, while talking about the2014 presidential election, Câmpeanu stated that he did not think that "Romanians will vote forCrin Antonescu" (in the hypothesis that the latter would have been the designated candidate of the party back then again), a statement which outraged then incumbent PNL leader.[21] Furthermore, as stated by him back then, he had correctly affirmed that theSocial Liberal Union (USL) will survive only as long as the peril ofBăsescu's power will linger on.
During the 1990s, Radu Câmpeanu was heavily criticised because of his subsequent closeness towards Ion Iliescu's National Salvation Front (FSN) in theProvisional Council of National Unity (CPUN) and the membership of the PNL within theStolojan Cabinet as well as because of the withdrawal of the PNL from theRomanian Democratic Convention (CDR) prior to the1992 Romanian general election. He was therefore seen as an instrument of the neo-communists at the time. This eventually led to his downfall as PNL president in 1993, being replaced byMircea Ionescu-Quintus during the same year.
Additionally, Câmpeanu was criticised for proposingKingMichael for president in 1992, but his majesty refused. This proved to be a major political and electoral error for the PNL as during that year's presidential election the party did not bring forth any candidate, failing also to enter the parliament, thereby scoring under the threshold of 3%.
Radu Câmpeanu was the son of formerDâmbovița County PNL prefect Dumitru Câmpeanu. Radu Câmpeanu is survived by one son, Barbu Câmpeanu, who is a university professor in France atÉcole polytechnique inPalaiseau, a southern suburb ofParis.[22]
In 1995, Radu Câmpeanu published a book entitled "Cu gândul la țară" (i.e.Thinking of the country), after the electoral slogan with which he ran for president back in 1990 (during that year'sRomanian presidential election). The book was edited and published by theCanadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and has a total length of 144 pages.[23]
The volume includes editorials published by him during the 1980s while in exile inParis,France for his publication entitled B.I.R.E. (i.e.Buletinul de Informație pentru Români în Exil orThe Bulletin of Information for Romanians in exile).[24] It represents a harsh criticism towards the political establishment of theSocialist Republic of Romania (RSR), theRomanian Communist Party (PCR), and former dictatorNicolae Ceaușescu in particular. For example, one of the harshest critics that Câmpeanu described in detail regarding the illicit communist regime at that time was the poor and delayed information service of the then Romanian authorities regarding theChernobyl disaster in 1986.[25][26] On the other hand and in stark contrast, he praised and expressed solidarity for theBrașov rebellion which took place one year later in 1987 inBrașov.[27] Câmpeanu also expressed solidarity for theJiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 in his newspaper, B.I.R.E.[28] Therefore, Câmpeanu perceived the communist regime as immoral, brutal, criminal, and catastrophic for Romania.
At the time of the release of "Cu gândul la țară" (namely in 1995), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) publishing house had another volume penned by Câmpeanu in works, announced then to be soon published, which was titled "O viață pentru România" (i.e.A life for Romania).[29]
Romania:| Election | Affiliation | First round | Second round | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | Percentage | Position | Votes | Percentage | Position | ||
| 1990 | National Liberal Party (PNL) | 1,529,188 | 10.6% | 2nd | |||
| 1996 | National Liberal Ecologist Alliance (ANLE)1 | 43,780 | 0.3% | 12th | |||
Notes:
1 The National Liberal Ecologist Alliance (ANLE) consisted of theNational Liberal Party–Câmpeanu (PNL-C) and theGreen Alternative Ecologists' Party (Romanian:Partidul Alternativa Verde-Ecologiștii, PAV-E).
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Party dissolved by communists | President of theNational Liberal Party (1990–1993) | Succeeded by |
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