Traian Băsescu

Biography

Traian Băsescu was born in 1951 near Constanța. He graduated from the naval institute there in 1976 and joined the state shipping company Navrom, commanding merchant ships in the 1980s, including the tanker Biruința, and running its agency in Antwerp from 1989. He was a member of the Communist Party, and documents published in 2019 showed he had written reports for the Securitate from the 1970s.

After 1989 he joined the National Salvation Front and then its Democratic Party wing. He was minister of transport in 1991-1992 and again from 1996 to 2000, sat in the Chamber of Deputies, and in 2000 was elected mayor of Bucharest. In 2001 he became leader of the Democratic Party.

As candidate of the Justice and Truth Alliance he won the 2004 presidential election, and he was re-elected in 2009. Romania joined the European Union in 2007. His presidency was marked by clashes with parliament, which suspended him twice, but he survived both impeachment referendums, in 2007 and 2012. After leaving office he led the People's Movement Party, sat in the Senate and was a member of the European Parliament from 2019 to 2024.