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A controversial, essentially populist, political figure, he is known for his strongly nationalist and xenophobic views, the theatrics of which often accompany his rhetoric, and his reliance on the denunications of political opponents (so far, a tactic which several civil lawsuits have ruled slanderous). He is most commonly referred to as "Vadim", many times understood as a family name (although it is clearly not shared with his relatively well-known brother, former Army officer and fellow Party member Marcu Tudor).

A disciple of the writer Eugen Barbu (who was an unofficial trusted advisor to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu), Tudor was energetic in his praise (in both prose and poetry) of the longtime communist dictator prior to Romania's 1989 revolution.

Biographical information

In 1971, he received a degree in sociology from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest, and in 1975, he studied at the School for Reserve Officers in Bucharest. With the help of his mentor, Herder Prize winner Eugen Barbu, he obtained a scholarship and studied in Vienna between 1978-1979.

During the communist era, he worked as a journalist, editor, and poet: in the early 1970s, he was one of the editors at ''România Liberă'', and after 1975 was an editor at the Romanian official press agency, Agerpress.

Has served as a Romanian senator between 1992-2008. For the first time since 1990, after the election of November 30, 2008, he and his party were no longer present in either of the Romanian legislative chambers. On September 25, 2001, Tudor renounced his parliamentary immunity from prosecution.

In December 2004, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel returned the ''Steaua României'' medal, one of the country's highest honors, after President Ion Iliescu awarded Tudor the same honor in the last days of his presidency. Wiesel said he was returning the honor because he could not "accept being placed on the same level" as Tudor and fellow party member (and honor recipient) Gheorghe Buzatu. Fifteen Radio Free Europe journalists, Timişoara mayor Gheorghe Ciuhandu, song writer Alexandru Andrieş, and historian Randolph Braham also returned their ''Steaua României'' medals as a result of the awards to Tudor and Buzatu. According to the conservative newspaper ''Ziua,'' Tudor's ''Steaua României'' appointment was revoked by Romanian president Traian Băsescu in May 2007. Tudor consequently announced he would sue Traian Băsescu for abuse of power.

He has written over 20 books, including volumes of poetry and political commentary, at least one of which has been translated into French, English, and Arabic. He has also written for the stage.

He is married and has two children.

Ideology

Of no less importance is Tudor's irredentism: the ideal of a ''Greater Romania'' is what gives the party its name, and Tudor has campaigned several times around the notion that he is the only Romanian politician to have maintained this particular goal. The reference is mainly aimed at the Republic of Moldova, a state whose legitimacy has been questioned by Tudor on numerous occasions. He has supported the cause of Romanians in Transnistria, and was involved in the efforts to set free the victim of a Tiraspol show trial, Ilie Ilaşcu. While Tudor was the one to embarrass the prosecutors by having Ilaşcu elected to the Romanian parliament on his party's list (in 2000), György Frunda—a preeminent ethnic Hungarian representative, and thus a main target of Tudor's attacks—has been the most active member of the Romanian delegation to the Council of Europe in obtaining a condemnation of the trial by the forum.

Besides Moldova, Tudor claims that Greater Romania must include Southern Bessarabia, the territory of Hertsa and Northern Bukovina which belong to Ukraine after the fall of the USSR, but were a part of historical Romania until the Russian anexation in 1812, and again between 1918-1940.

''România Mare'' has been sued for libel with stunning frequency, often for Tudor's own writings (which he usually—if not always—signs under the pseudonym ''Alcibiade''). Between 1993 and 1996, his party supported the leftist governmental coalition (the "Red Quadrilateral").

Tudor's and his party's change from national-communism to ultranationalism took place after 1996. In 1999, Dan Corneliu Hudici, a former reporter at ''România Mare'', claimed there was a "secret blacklist" of dozens of politicians (including then-president Emil Constantinescu), journalists, and businessmen to be arrested if Tudor's party came to power. This allegation only served to increase his popularity: in the first round of the Romanian presidential elections on November 26, 2000, Tudor finished second with 28% of the vote. (Four years earlier, he had come in fifth.) However, nearly all other parties backed Ion Iliescu in the December 11 runoff, and Tudor only picked up five additional percentage points, while Iliescu surged from 36% to 67%. In 2001, the Egyptian daily''Al-Ahram'' called him the "Jean-Marie Le Pen of the Carpathians.".

Changing his convictions to what he deemed ''Christian Democracy'', Tudor supported Romania's entry into the European Union and sustained its presence in NATO. In 2003, Tudor claimed to have changed his views of Jews, Judaism, and the Holocaust. In a letter of February 1, 2004, he retracted certain earlier statements he had made as inappropriately anti-Semitic; further, he wrote: ''I know that I was wrong to have denied the Holocaust in Romania, which happened between 1941 and 1944 under Antonescu's regime''. Many publicly questioned the sincerity and motivations of this change, viewing it simply as a political ploy. Despite sharp criticism of the move from within Israel, Tudor hired a well-known Israeli public relations company to provide him consulting for the 2004 electoral campaigns. In the elections of 2004 he came out 3rd with a score of 11%, after Adrian Năstase and Traian Băsescu.

He fired Jewish advisor (and member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies) Nati Meir due to allegations of bribery (according to Tudor) or old habits of anti-semitism (according to Meir). The Romanian press discovered that Meir had been convicted in Israel of banking fraud, thus incompatible with the office of member of the Chamber of Deputies. On November 15, 2006 Meir was brought to trial by the Romanian authorities for tax evasion, fraud and swindling, being accused of illegalities concerning work permits for Israel.

After stepping down as president of the PPRM (''Partidul Popular România Mare''—with the added ''People's Party'') for a short while, he returned, firing Corneliu Ciontu (appointed president of the PPRM by Tudor) and taking over party affairs. The party has since reverted to its old name and its core tenets, as its more moderate stance appeared have lost old votes without gaining new ones. Tudor's publications continued to include articles that denied the Holocaust in Romania and took deliberately antagonistic positions toward Romanian Roma, ethnic Hungarians, and other minority groups.

In recent years, Tudor has also faced an increasing challenge from another Romanian populist leader, Gigi Becali, owner of the Steaua football team and president of the New Generation Party, but ended up allying with him when the latter was imprisoned, and subsequently both were voted into the European Parliament.

He has frequently styled himself ''The Tribune'', a title that originates in Ancient Rome, but has an ever more combative meaning in Romanian history: ''tribuni'' stood for certain activists in the self-defence of Romanian communities in Transylvania against the Revolutionary government in Hungary (see The Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas).

Awards

References

External links

Category:Leaders of political parties in Romania Category:Greater Romania Party politicians Category:Candidates for President of Romania Category:Members of the Senate of Romania Category:Romanian magazine editors Category:Romanian magazine founders Category:Romanian newspaper editors Category:Romanian newspaper founders Category:Romanian poets Category:People from Bucharest Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Romania Category:Romanian Orthodox Christians Category:Recipients of the Star of Romania Order Category:Saint Sava National College alumni Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:Greater Romania Party MEPs Category:MEPs for Romania 2009–2014