Mihai Razvan Ungureanu - 2012
Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu [aka MRU] was Foreign Minister between 2004-2007 and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Romania during 2007-2012. He was prime minister during February-April 2012, when the government led by him fell after 78 days of mandate following the opposition's censure motion. On 15 July 2015, Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu [aka MRU] was appointed as Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service.
Mihai Razvan Ungureanu was born on September 22, 1968 in Iasi, being the son of Prof. Dr. Stefan Ungureanu, former deputy mayor of Iasi (1996-2000). Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu speaks fluent English, French and German and satisfies the Hungarian language. He is married and has a son.
During his studies at the "Costache Negruzzi" High School in Iasi (which he graduated as head of the promotion in 1987), from 1985 until the Revolution of 1989 he was an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Union of Communist Youth. He graduated from the Hebrew and Oxford University Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies in 1993. On March 27, 2004, he obtained a PhD in Modern History from the Faculty of History of the "Al. I. Cuza" University of Iasi. He was employed as a university professor of Modern History of Romania at the Faculty of History of "Al. I. Cuza" University of Iasi,
In 2004, he joined the National Liberal Party. Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs on 29 December 2004 in the Tariceanu Government. He was forced to resign after a scandal provoked by the arrest of two Romanian workers in Iraq, accused of espionage. After his resignation from the foreign affairs ministry, Ungureanu returned to his post before serving as Deputy Coordinator of the South East European Cooperation Initiative (SECI), based in Vienna (March - December 2007).
Ungureanu became Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) in December 2007. Ungureanu also served as Foreign Minister in Tariceanu Cabinet, but resigned after a scandal involving two Romanian workers arrested in Iraq following charges of espionage.
Facing protests in the street, on 06 February 2012, under public pressure, Emil Boc announced his resignation and submits the mandate of the entire Cabinet. President Traian Basescu thanks Boc's resignation for "profound devotion" and, on the same night, proposes Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, for the post of prime minister.
On 09 February 2012, Ungureanu's Cabinet receives the investiture vote and presents a governmental program similar to that of the previous Cabinet. Prime-Minister Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu and the ministers of his Cabinet were sworn in before president Traian Basescu. At the ceremony at the Cotroceni presidential Palace also were present the two speakers of the Parliament's chambers, Roberta Anastase and Vasile Blaga, as well as the chairman of the Constitutional Court, Augustin Zegrean.
He underlined the essence of governing is the dialogue with the Opposition since "without Opposition, good ideas are given birth rarely and survive harder." Likewise, Ungureanu said he counted on the dialogue with the society, because 'in a democracy society cannot be isolated, whilst a government could fade away in isolation".
"I am not coming here in front of you in hard times to make unrealistic promises. A period of prosperity will not start with tomorrow. To accomplish it, we have a long way to go. Prudence and responsibility are the governing principles of 2012", Ungureanu said, before his sworn in moment. Ungureanu underscored the new Executive seeks to uproot corruption and he stressed the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) and the National Agency for Integrity (ANI) are the main pillars in this respect.
Almost 150 million euros were given to mayoralties headed by representatives of the ruling coalition. Another disputed decision of PM Ungureanu was the dismissal of former ANAF chief Sorin Blejnar because he would not have managed to raise 1.5 billion euros from the fight against tax evasion within two months, short.
After just 78 days, the Ungureanu government fell on April 27 after a censure motion put forward by the Social Democrats and Liberals, then in the opposition. The Ungureanu government fell after the USL's censure motion was voted with 235 votes. Besides the accusations of political favoritism, Ungureanu was also accused of failing to privatize Oltchim.
In July 2015 Liberal Senator Mihai Razvan Ungureanu was nominated by President Klaus Iohannis for the position of Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Prime Minister Victor Ponta attacked Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, shortly before the vote in the Parliament on the appointment of the Liberal at the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.
On September 26, 2016, Mihai Razvan Ungureanu resigned from the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE). Ungureanu stated during a lecture he delivered 17 March 2017 at the Faculty of European Studies of "Babes-Bolyai" University in Cluj that it is a matter of a few years until a far-right party appears in Romania. Mihai Razvan Ungureanu held a conference on "Old Europe and New Nationalism". This was the first public release since Ungureanu resigned from the SIE leadership.
In his opinion, this type of party is the most powerful enemy of human rights in the European Union, as it coagulates fears about the disappearance of a national culture and the dissolution of traditions into a supranational culture. "The speeches and rhetoric of these parties destroyed the public debate by destroying the nuances. It has to be said that they also vitiate the selection of leaders - not the intellectual and ethical doubt prevails, but the aggressiveness and the stronger voice. It is a dramatic crisis for leaders to send human rights defense messages or a positive speech," said Mihai Razvan Ungureanu.
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