Liviu Dragnea

Liviu Dragnea is a Romanian politician born on 28 October 1962 in the village of Gratia, Teleorman province, Romania. He served as chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) between 2015 and 2019, and as chairman of the House of Representatives between 2016 and 2019. During the same period, he frequently came to the fore with the convictions against him.

Political rise

Dragnea, who graduated from the transportation department of the Bucharest Polytechnic Institute in 1987, entered politics in the ranks of the Democratic Party and was appointed governor of Teleorman in 1996. Switched to PSD in 2000; In the same year, he was elected chairman of the Teleorman Provincial Council and continued this duty until 2012. He became Minister of Internal Affairs in January 2009, but left office about two weeks later.

He served as Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration in the Victor Ponta government established in 2012, and served as deputy prime minister for a while. He became PSD leader after Ponta resigned from the leadership of the party in 2015. His party came first in the December 2016 elections; However, he could not become prime minister due to his conviction for election fraud. Instead, he was elected speaker of the House of Representatives.

Convictions and aftermath

Dragnea, who was tried for rigging the vote during the presidential referendum in 2012, received a two-year suspended prison sentence with the decision that became final in 2016. He was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison for inciting abuse of power in the case of false employment at the child welfare institution in Teleorman.

When the decision became final on May 27, 2019, he went to prison and his party leadership and parliamentary presidency ended. He was paroled on July 15, 2021, after serving part of his sentence.

After his release, he supported new political formations outside PSD, but did not take an active role. His political career is remembered as an important part of the power debates and judicial tensions in Romania in the second half of the 2010s.