Raluca Turcan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Turcan in 2013 | |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Romania | |
| In office 4 November 2019 – 23 December 2020 | |
| President | Klaus Iohannis |
| Prime Minister | Ludovic Orban Nicolae Ciucă(Acting) |
| Preceded by | Paul Stănescu |
| Succeeded by | Dan Barna &Kelemen Hunor |
| Minister of Culture | |
| In office 15 June 2023 – 23 December 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Marcel Ciolacu |
| Preceded by | Lucian Romașcanu |
| Succeeded by | Natalia-Elena Intotero |
| Minister of Labor and Social Protection | |
| In office 23 December 2020 – 25 November 2021 | |
| Prime Minister | Florin Cîțu |
| Preceded by | Violeta Alexandru |
| Succeeded by | Marius-Constantin Budăi |
| President of theNational Liberal Party | |
(Acting) | |
| In office 13 December 2016 – 17 June 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Alina Gorghiu |
| Succeeded by | Ludovic Orban |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies | |
| Assumed office 17 December 2004 | |
| Constituency | Sibiu County |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Raluca Tatarcan (1976-04-02)2 April 1976 (age 49) |
| Party | National Liberal Party (Before 2006; 2014–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Liberal Democratic Party (2006–2007) Democratic Liberal Party (2007–2014) |
| Spouse | Valeriu Turcan(2004–present) |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies National University of Political Studies and Public Administration Transilvania University |
Raluca Turcan (Romanian pronunciation:[raˈlukaturˈkan];née Tătărcan (Romanian pronunciation:[tətərˈkan]); 2 April 1976) is aRomanian politician. A member of theNational Liberal Party (PNL), she has been a member of theRomanian Chamber of Deputies forSibiu County since 2004.
She has been married toValeriu Turcan, a former adviser toRomanian PresidentTraian Băsescu, since 2004. The couple have a son, Eric, born in 2007.[1]
She was born inBotoșani to Dumitru and Maria-Margareta Tatarcan;[2] her father is a high school principal.[3] She studied in the Faculty of International Economic Relations at theBucharest Academy of Economic Studies, graduating in 1999. She was also enrolled atMoscow's Pushkin Institute from 1996 to 1999, and earned a degree in businessRussian from there. In 2006, she began work on a master's degree in political marketing at theNational School of Administration and Political Science of Bucharest, and that year she also began a doctorate at theTransylvania University of Braşov. She has also pursued studies inAustria and in theUnited States. From 1999 to 2000, she worked as a public relations consultant for Tofan Grup, an automobile tyre distributor. She was then a parliamentary expert at theRomanian Senate from 2000 to 2004, and from 2000 to 2006 was an associated professor at Transylvania University and at theRomanian-German University of Sibiu.[4]
Turcan began her political career in 2000, as an adviser to the president of the National Council of theNational Liberal Party (PNL). In 2002, she moved on to become an adviser to PNL PresidentTheodor Stolojan, which she remained until 2004. That year, which saw herelected to Parliament, she joined the PNL's national leadership council, remaining until 2006. After being ejected from the PNL, she and fellow party dissidentsValeriu Stoica andCristian Boureanu joined the Stolojan-foundedLiberal Democratic Party (PLD), serving as its vice president from March until December 2007. At that point, the party merged with the Democratic Party and Turcan became vice president of the new formation, the PDL.[4] She wasre-elected in 2008.[5] While in the Chamber, she has served on several committees, and has twice been president of the Committee on Culture, Arts and Mass Media (2005–2006; since 2008).[6] At the2012 election, she placed second in her district, but won another term through the redistribution mechanism specified by the electoral law.[7] Following the PNL's loss in the2016 election and the resignation of its presidentAlina Gorghiu, Turcan served as interim party leader,[8] until the election ofLudovic Orban on a permanent basis.[9] In May 2019, following the vacancy left by the incarceration ofLiviu Dragnea, she ran forChamber President, losing toMarcel Ciolacu of theSocial Democratic Party (PSD).[10] She wasDeputy Prime Minister of Romania from November 2019 to December 2020 andMinister of Labour and Social Protection from December 2020 to November 2021.[11]
Turcan has worked with civil society groups focusing on mass media, free expression, human rights and health. She has co-authored an English-Russian-Romanian dictionary of economic terms, as well as the bookIntegrare şi politică fiscală europeană ("Integration and European Fiscal Policy"). Additionally, she has published studies onEuropean integration and public relations.[4]
During her career in politics, Turcan has been the subject of some controversy. AfterCălin Popescu-Tăriceanu became PNL President andPrime Minister of Romania in 2004, her public criticisms of the party began to increase, so that in July 2006, the party gave her a warning, to which she responded that she would continue making similar statements.[12] She kept her word, and the party expelled her that September.[13] Continuing to attack Tăriceanu, she was at the forefront of a group of PD-L deputies who in March 2008 asked prosecutors to investigate the prime minister for abuse of office and corruption in his attempts to impose an automobile tax (he has links to the industry),[14] and, a year later, before Tăriceanu lost the PNL presidency, declared a united right-wing party encompassing the PD-L and the PNL could be formed if he and a few people around him left the PNL.[15] Shortly after her expulsion, she complained of "a trio monopolising the party, made up of Tăriceanu,Olteanu andOrban, which has practically confiscated it and eliminates anyone who dares share a point of view different from theirs".[16] By contrast, she has been a public supporter of Băsescu, whom she notes shares the PD-L's objectives,[17] andwhose suspension she called "a serious abuse".[18] She also predicted that then-PNL leaderCrin Antonescu would lose to Băsescu at the2009 election and noted the party risked marginalisation if it continued its anti-Băsescu strategy.[19] Turcan supports modifying theConstitution in order to enhance presidential powers to those found in a consolidatedsemi-presidential system.[20]
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of theNational Liberal Party Acting (2016–2017) | Succeeded by |