György Frunda
Encyclopedia
György Frunda is a Romania
n jurist, politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania
(UDMR), he has been a member of the Romanian Senate
for Mureş County
since 1992, and was twice the UDMR's candidate for the office of Romanian President
(in 1996 and 2000). Since 1992, Frunda has been a member of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe
(PACE), serving as president of the delegation since September 2004, and sitting with the European People's Party
(EPP). A member of the Constituent Assembly
in 1990-1992, he served on the commission drafting the Romanian Constitution
.
On December 18, 2004, György Frunda was awarded the Hungarian Republic
's Grand Cross of the Order of Merit by President
Ferenc Mádl
. He is married to a physician, and has fathered two daughters.
. His father Károly (known in Romanian
as Carol) was a member of the resistance movement
in opposition to the Communist regime
: in 1956, he joined Ioan Faliboga and other young people in organizing clandestine committees that took inspiration from the Hungarian Revolution. He was arrested in January 1958, and sentenced to 12 years in prison, but was set free by the general amnesty
of 1964.
Frunda completed secondary studies at the Papiu Ilarian High School in the city (1970), before enrolling at the University of Cluj
(the present-day Babeş-Bolyai University
), where he completed Law studies in 1974. In 1991-1992, he took postgraduate classes at the Salzburg Seminary and the Future of Europe classes in London
. Between 1975 and 1995, Frunda worked as a barrister
in his native city, operating a private law practice after 1996.
Following the 1989 Revolution
, he joined the newly-created UDMR and represented it in Chamber
, serving as Secretary of the Committee for Drafting the Constitution and a member of the Chamber's Judicial Committee. He successfully ran on UDMR lists for the Senate in the 1992 election, serving as Vice President of its Judicial Committee and envoy to the PACE after 1993. He was appointed PACE Rapporteur
for Lithuania
in 1995, and became Vice President of the EEP's Parliamentary Group in 1996 (reelected in 2000 and 2004).
, which were eventually won by the Romanian Democratic Convention
's Emil Constantinescu
, Frunda was supported by the UDMR and received 761,411 votes (6.02% of the ballot). Commenting on the electoral debates of that year, analyst Tom Gallagher
contrasted the rhetoric of incumbent President Ion Iliescu
, who had become noted for his polemic views regarding the UDMR, with that of Frunda; contending that Iliescu was adopting a nationalist
discourse which had been discarded by the majority of voters, Gallagher described Frunda as the UDMR's "most moderate and fluent parliamentarian, who improved the UDMR's image for many Romanian voters".
Confirmed a senator by the legislative election of the same period
, he became Secretary of the Judicial Committee, also serving on the Committee for Monitoring and the Committee for Territorial Improvement and Local Authorities, as well as on the Committee for Human Rights (in 1999-2000) and, as Secretary, on the Judicial Committee for Appointments, Discipline, Immunities and Validations. Additionally, Frunda was Second Vice President of the PACE Judicial Committee.
Welcoming reconciliation with Hungary and measures leading to the Romania's European integration at a time when the UDMR joined Victor Ciorbea
's Democratic Convention cabinet, Frunda argued that this process had made unlikely the resurfacing of violent incidents such as the March 1990 ethnic clashes in Târgu Mureş
. In reference to the bilateral treaty signed by the two states, he stated: "from 1918 till now no leading figure in Romanian politics ever had the courage to say «let us normalise relations with Hungary»".
During the early 1990s, György Frunda represented in court Pál Cseresznyés, an ethnic Hungarian accused of taking part in the Târgu Mureş clashes. Previously sentenced to 10 years in prison, Cseresznyés was the recipient of a pardon
issued by President Constantinescu (December 1996). Speaking at the time, Frunda stressed that Romanian courts investigating the 1990 incidents had only sentenced ethnic Hungarians and Roma
, and that Romanians had escaped punishment.
, after winning the nomination in an inner-party race with the more radical László Tőkés
, the Union's Honorary Chairman. Frunda was endorsed by UDMR leader Béla Markó
, who advised party members not to vote for a change in policy; in reaction, Tőkés stressed that his adversary winning was going to "set in stone the wrong political line for a long time" (additionally, he accused the UDMR's leadership of displaying "moral decay"). Frunda was eventually voted by 59 members of the UDMR Council (Tőkés received 34 votes).
During the electoral campaign, Frunda invited the gay rights
organization ACCEPT
to take part in a meeting with youth in Bucharest
, at a time when Article 200 of the Romanian Penal Code
, which criminalized homosexual relations, was being brought under public scrutiny. He received 696,989 votes (6.22%) in the national suffrage. During the second round of voting, when the Social Democratic Party
's Iliescu faced the Greater Romania Party
's Corneliu Vadim Tudor
, he urged all political forces to isolate the latter, who is generally viewed as an extremist. Stating that he was "worried by the high score Mr. Vadim Tudor achieved", he declared that: "All political parties in Romania now have an obligation to isolate him and his party". Frunda was reelected a senator during the legislative election of the same month
, serving as President of the Committee for Human Rights after 2002.
In January 2001, Frunda was among the 38 parliamentarians from 18 countries who signed an appeal to have Ilie Ilaşcu
, an ethnic Romanian
Moldova
n citizen who had been tried and sentenced to death by a Transnistria
n court, to be retried in a Council of Europe member state. He noted that the matter was problematic, since Ilaşcu was confirmed to have "shot and killed two people" by the Moldovan Supreme Court, but pointed out that the Transnistrian authorities were holding Ilaşcu in "inhumane conditions" (a situation which he defined as "inadmissible"). Beginning 2003, Frunda sparked controversy when he called for the posthumous rehabilitation
of Albert Wass, a Hungarian writer convicted in Romania for participation in the Holocaust. His statement to the press argued that Wass, unlike Romania's World War II
dictator Ion Antonescu
(who had been tried in a similar context), was the victim of procedural mistakes.
Frunda did not run in the presidential election of 2004
, and gave his backing to Markó, who was the UDMR's nominee; at a time when political parties were considering announcing candidatures for the post of Romanian Premier
, Frunda was the one designated by the UDMR. During the televised debate hosted by TVR 1
, in an unprecedented gesture, he summarized parts of the discussion in Hungarian
.
Reelected a senator during the 2004 legislative election
, he became President of the Senate Committee for Human Rights, Religions and Minorities, and, inside the Council of Europe, First Vice President of the Monitoring Committees, member of the Committee on Human Rights, member of the Subcommittee on Human Rights, and member of several other committees and subcommittees; additionally, Frunda was the Council's Rapporteur for Nations, Minorities and Religion, and Rapporteur for the Judicial Committee on the "Concept of Nation".
as Monitor, with the goal of establishing "whether Latvia is successfully fulfilling the commitments it undertook upon joining the Council of Europe" (part of the post-monitoring process).
He notably met with Premier
Aigars Kalvītis
, and gave a positive assessment of the way in which Latvia had carried out its obligations, while pointing out that Russian Latvians
still faced some problems in naturalization
and voting rights. He called on the country to discard its reservations to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
(in respect to the status of Latvian language
as the sole language of administration), and to abandon the loyalty principle from its law on acquiring citizenship. President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
indicated that the official status of Latvian was not subject for negotiation, and that social integration
was a priority for the leadership. Based on Frunda's memorandum to the Council of Europe, the Committee on the Honoring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States recommended an end to post-monitoring, although Frunda himself proposed to prolong post-monitoring.
In November, as Russia
prepared for taking over the presidency of the European Council's Committee of Ministers
, Frunda visited the country on behalf of the Monitoring Committee, and attempted to convince the Russian leadership to ratify the 6th additional protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights
, restricting the application of the death penalty to times of war or national emergency (see Capital punishment in Russia
). While he clarified that the Council was not going to sanction Russian representatives if the measure was not enforced, he argued that the country had to decide between siding with the majority of European states and the group of states represented by North Korea
, the People's Republic of China
, and the United States
.
in respect to regions such as Transylvania
. In addition, Frunda was quoted as saying he did not endorse the nation-state
as defined by the Romanian Constitution
, and as stating "I do not represent Romania [in the Council of Europe]. I am the head of the Romanian Delegation, elected by 10 members who represented Romania at a parliamentary level". In reaction, the National Initiative Party
, represented by independent Romanian parliamentarians, called for Frunda to be reprimanded by the Senate. Replying, Frunda indicated that the Recommendation was ineffectual in respect to Romania, and pointed out that all states who agreed to join the European Union
implicitly accepted to delegate powers of their respective national governments, stressing that his argument about the nation-state made reference to this latter process.
In the PACE Report, he concluded: "I do not think it is important to formulate a new concept of nation. The real issue behind the debate about a possible «21st century concept of nation» is not the definition itself, but the acceptance of a new way of thinking, of rethinking the nation, and specifically the transversality of the nation across boundaries – a nation often, but not always, deeply rooted in history. Following the two world wars in the 20th century, national borders were redrawn and, as a result, parts of the kin-state now live in the territory of one of the neighbouring states, where they represent «national minorities or communities»". According to the text, "The purpose of all these recommendations is to ensure that the concepts of «nation» and «national community (minority)» are interpreted flexibly and in good faith and to foster a peaceful and tolerant climate between the majority and national minorities in every Council of Europe member state".
Elaborating on the issue, he expressed his support for enlarging the concept of nation, for cultural autonomy
, and for multiculturalism
(he stated: "Cultural autonomy means the right of a national minority, at a cultural level, for instance in schools, theaters and radio broadcasting, to decide for itself in the matter concerning it. It has nothing to do with territorial autonomy"). He later defined the way in which he was quoted by the press as "an injustice", and declared: "I have represented and will always represent my country, with dignity and in accordance with my best knowledge. But I have said, and it is true, that I did not draft this report as a Romanian senator, I have drafted it through appointment and with a mandate from the Council of Europe's Judicial Committee [...]".
Frunda received support from UDMR president Béla Markó
, who reacted to additional criticism from the Democratic Party's Emil Boc
, and indicated that he shared his colleague's views on the nation-state issue ("The concept of nation-state no longer exists in Europe"). He dismissed opposition to Frunda's attitude as "lectures in loyalty", and stated that Frunda's activity at the Council of Europe "deserves praise and appreciation".
(Communist Romania
's secret police
) on Frunda and 28 other politicians, including the UDMR's Markó and Attila Verestóy
, were declassified
by the Romanian Intelligence Service
(SRI). The opening of archived documents uncovered that Frunda had been the subject of a "network file" (a type of document which is generally associated with Securitate informants). Upon reviewing it, Frunda concluded that it was actually evidence of the Securitate having attempted and failed to enlist him, stressing that he never agreed to be drawn into collaboration. He added that he had signed two documents, confirming, respectively, his refusal to collaborate, and his pledge to maintain secrecy over having been contacted by the secret police. According to Frunda, only the latter document was present among those handed down by the SRI, which led him to question whether the file was complete.
The matter was made more problematic by the fact that Frunda had a second file kept on him, which proved that he was also the object of Securitate surveillance. Speaking at the time, the last Securitate chief for Mureş County
, Gheorghe Mărieş, claimed that he had first-hand information regarding Frunda's status as an informant, an allegation which the senator dismissed.
In September, György Frunda was interpellated by the National Anticorruption Prosecution Office
over, as indicated by Frunda's statement, "several parliamentary debates, regarding a number of parliamentarians". During the same period, he asked to be heard by the CNSAS, an institution charged with investigating Securitate affiliations, and declared to the press that he rejected all notion of ever having been an informant or collaborator of the Securitate (while indicating that public figures who stated otherwise were legally liable).
The CNSAS ultimately cleared Frunda of the allegations (September 14, 2006), with six out of eight votes—the two abstaining members were Mircea Dinescu
and Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu
. According to Evenimentul Zilei
, the deliberation was tense, with Dinescu and Dumitrescu reportedly protesting the verdict during the actual procedures. Several days later, Dinescu, who took the decision of exposing what he saw as the CNSAS' problems, clarified his position in the case involving Frunda: "It was a complicated file and I could not vote in clear conscience, not knowing certain details". The National Initiative Party
's Raluca Şandru, an independent member of the Chamber
, publicly appealed for the CNSAS to reconsider its decision and recall Frunda for questioning.
In early October, Frunda also proposed that the law regulating CNSAS activities be amended, in order to automatically include among Securitate collaborators those members of the Romanian Communist Party
who held political offices at a central, regional, or local level, and who took part in decision-making regarding political repression. The project drew opposition from the Social Democratic
senator Şerban Nicolae, who argued that the text was purposely designed to incriminate former President
Ion Iliescu
. Defending his bill, Frunda stressed that "it would be hypocritical to condemn Securitate cadres, but not their bosses". In addition, he proposed changes to define as Securitate collaborators those who had acted "with intent".
, he was nominated by the UDMR for a position in the European Commission
(the National Liberal
Varujan Vosganian
was selected for the post, before being replaced by Leonard Orban
). Speaking in February 2007, Frunda criticized members of his party for having failed to promote a challenger for Markó during elections for its presidency. Referring to the UDMR faction formed around Sándor Kónya-Hamar
, Tibor Toró, and Péter Eckstein-Kovács
, he argued its alleged policy of "not providing viable written-down alternatives denotes [its] political weakness".
During spring, Frunda supported his party's option to impeach
President Traian Băsescu
for allegedly unconstitutional conduct. Before the May referendum
reconfirmed Băsescu, Frunda commented on the UDMR's choice before TVR 1
cameras, confronted with the pro-Băsescu intellectual Gabriel Liiceanu
. On the occasion, Liiceanu asked Frunda to explain how the UDMR could tolerate being on the same pro-impeachment camp as the Greater Romania Party
; according to Dilema Veche
political commentator Cristian Ghinea, the reply was unsatisfactory. Ghinea sarcastically noted that there was an additional paradox to be noted, since the Greater Romania agenda was "anti-mafia
", whereas Frunda "now seems to me the most cleaned-up front for the corrupt system
."
In June–July 2007, Frunda was at the center of a controversy provoked when Dick Marty
, a Swiss
representative to the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, publicized his report on the existence of black site
s allegedly maintained by the American
Central Intelligence Agency
in several Eastern Europe
an countries (Romania included). As Romanian authorities denied the charge, National Liberal senator Norica Nicolai
accused Frunda of wanting to discredit Romania by providing Marty with necessary information; in response, Frunda argued that this actually had been furnished by the Romanian institutions, which, he indicated, had a duty to report them. On July 3, 2007, the Democratic Party
representatives to the Parliamentary Assembly asked the Romanian Parliament to recall Frunda from his leadership of the delegation, claiming that he had been absent from the Judicial Committee during deliberations over Marty's report (they also indicated that they were not going to attend meetings at the Council of Europe until Marty would come and verify his conclusions on the spot). Chamber
leader Bogdan Olteanu
, a member of the National Liberal Party, criticized the decision, indicating that such resolutions could only be initiated by Parliament.
election of November 2007
. The election was marked by László Tőkés
' decision to run as an independent, which caused the UDMR to express its disappointment. Upon announcing his own candidature in September, György Frunda indicated that having two contenders from the Hungarian minority could result in the community not being at all represented in Brussels
, and argued that Tőkés would have done best to withdraw from the race. Frunda eventually won the MEP
seat but, on December 1, 2007, announced that he was giving it up in favor of party colleague Iuliu Winkler
, explaining that he was being instead considered for the presidency of the PACE Judicial Committee. He stated: "I have decided it was more important for me and for the Hungarian community in Romania and, not least, for Romania, if I were to take up [the PACE] office." Frunda was subsequently involved in discussions about prison reform
, speaking in favor of judicial methods to tackle the widespread inmate overcrowding, and supporting a more generalized use of parole
.
Frunda again won a Senate seat after running in the November 2008 election
, the first such suffrage to result in mixed member proportional representation
at a newly-established electoral college
level. In Mureş County, the three main UDMR contenders for the electoral college seats were himself, Béla Markó, and László Borbély
. In October, before Social Democratic leader Mircea Geoană
was elected Senate Chairman, Béla Markó had announced that he favored Frunda for that office, were UDMR in a position to nominate a candidate.
Frunda's new term in the Senate was touched by controversy. Shortly after he returned to his seat, his new statement of financial interests revealed that he is by far the richest parliamentarian in Mureş. In June 2009, a Parliament administrative report showed that his office had cost the public 103,197 new lei
in state-funded expenses (the costliest mandate).
In July 2010, Frunda introduced law amendments which drastically limited powers for the government-backed National Integrity Agency (ANI), an organism previously charged with verifying the assets and revenue statements of politicians; his objections were passed into law, mainly with backing from the opposition Social Democrats and the National Liberals, and with additional votes from the governing Democratic Liberal Party
and UDMR. The anti-ANI legislation, unsuccessfully rejected by President Bǎsescu, was received with strong criticism by various journalists, political commentators and civil society
opinion leaders. Revista 22
panelist Andreea Pora summarized Frunda's attempts to fight the ANI law, dating back to Monica Macovei
's 2005 proposals, and described Frunda as a "devil's advocate
" for those who wanted "a free passage to deals, wrongdoings and theft". She also noted that the senator was himself a reputed target for ANI investigators. Writing in 2002 for România Literară
review, academic Mircea Mihăieş contrasted Frunda's "new tone and elegance" of the 1990s with his support of Social Democratic moves to keep dignitaries' fortunes under secrecy. Cristian Ghinea, who spoke of several attempts on Frunda's part to redefine the scope of ANI investigations as favoring the corrupt under the pretext of human rights concerns (and against the scope of European monitoring
), ridiculed the association of interests between Frunda and the new National Liberal leader, Crin Antonescu
.
Shortly after the Senate vote, Democratic Liberal Party senator Iulian Urban, who had abstained, denounced a political deal between his own group and the UDMR, through which Frunda was selected to uphold a measure coveted by PDL representatives, but unpopular with the electorate. Himself hailing from Democratic Liberal politics, President Bǎsescu also went on record with a claim that, in proposing the vote, Frunda had acted "against Romania's interests", compromising its standing and credibility within the European Union.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n jurist, politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania
Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania
The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, is the main political organisation representing the ethnic Hungarians of Romania....
(UDMR), he has been a member of the Romanian Senate
Senate of Romania
The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...
for Mureş County
Mures County
Mureș is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș.-Geography:The county has a total area of 6,714 km²....
since 1992, and was twice the UDMR's candidate for the office of Romanian President
President of Romania
The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...
(in 1996 and 2000). Since 1992, Frunda has been a member of the Parliamentary Assembly
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , which held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an...
of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
(PACE), serving as president of the delegation since September 2004, and sitting with the European People's Party
European People's Party
The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of...
(EPP). A member of the Constituent Assembly
Parliament of Romania
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...
in 1990-1992, he served on the commission drafting the Romanian Constitution
Constitution of Romania
The 1991 Constitution of Romania, adopted on 21 November 1991, voted in the referendum of 8 December 1991 and introduced on the same day, is the current fundamental law that establishes the structure of the government of Romania, the rights and obligations of the country's citizens, and its mode...
.
On December 18, 2004, György Frunda was awarded the Hungarian Republic
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
's Grand Cross of the Order of Merit by President
Heads of state of Hungary
-Hungarian Revolution of 1848:Parties-Hungarian Democratic Republic :Parties-Hungarian Soviet Republic :Parties-Romanian Occupation :Parties-Kingdom of Hungary :...
Ferenc Mádl
Ferenc Mádl
Ferenc Mádl was the second President of the third Republic of Hungary, having served from 4 August 2000 to 5 August 2005.-University studies and scientific activities:...
. He is married to a physician, and has fathered two daughters.
Early life and career
He was born to ethnic Hungarian parents in Târgu Mureş, and is a member of the Reformed ChurchReformed Church in Romania
The Reformed Church in Romania is the organization of the Calvinist church in Romania. The majority of its followers are of Hungarian ethnicity and Hungarian is the main church language...
. His father Károly (known in Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
as Carol) was a member of the resistance movement
Romanian anti-communist resistance movement
An armed resistance movement against the communist regime in Romania was active from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s, with isolated individual fighters remaining at large until the early 1960s. Armed resistance was the first and most structured form of resistance against the communist regime...
in opposition to the Communist regime
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
: in 1956, he joined Ioan Faliboga and other young people in organizing clandestine committees that took inspiration from the Hungarian Revolution. He was arrested in January 1958, and sentenced to 12 years in prison, but was set free by the general amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
of 1964.
Frunda completed secondary studies at the Papiu Ilarian High School in the city (1970), before enrolling at the University of Cluj
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
(the present-day Babeş-Bolyai University
Babes-Bolyai University
The Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca is an university in Romania. With almost 50,000 students, the university offers 105 specialisations, of which there are 105 in Romanian, 67 in Hungarian, 17 in German, and 5 in English...
), where he completed Law studies in 1974. In 1991-1992, he took postgraduate classes at the Salzburg Seminary and the Future of Europe classes in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Between 1975 and 1995, Frunda worked as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
in his native city, operating a private law practice after 1996.
Following the 1989 Revolution
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
, he joined the newly-created UDMR and represented it in Chamber
Chamber of Deputies of Romania
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 315 seats, to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms...
, serving as Secretary of the Committee for Drafting the Constitution and a member of the Chamber's Judicial Committee. He successfully ran on UDMR lists for the Senate in the 1992 election, serving as Vice President of its Judicial Committee and envoy to the PACE after 1993. He was appointed PACE Rapporteur
Rapporteur
Rapporteur is used in international and European legal and political contexts to refer to a person appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue or a situation....
for Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
in 1995, and became Vice President of the EEP's Parliamentary Group in 1996 (reelected in 2000 and 2004).
1996-2000
Running in the 1996 presidential electionRomanian presidential election, 1996
These are the results of the Romanian presidential elections of November 3, run-off held on November 17, 1996:-First round:-Run-off:...
, which were eventually won by the Romanian Democratic Convention
Romanian Democratic Convention
The Romanian Democratic Convention was an electoral alliance of several political parties of Romania, active from early 1992 until 2000....
's Emil Constantinescu
Emil Constantinescu
Emil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist...
, Frunda was supported by the UDMR and received 761,411 votes (6.02% of the ballot). Commenting on the electoral debates of that year, analyst Tom Gallagher
Thomas Gerard Gallagher
-Education and career:Tom Gallagher is holder of the chair of ethnic peace and conflict at the department of peace studies, University of Bradford. Ironically it has been alleged that he has been known to vocally support the INLA, who carried out a twenty-four year campaign of terror including the...
contrasted the rhetoric of incumbent President Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu served as President of Romania from 1990 until 1996, and from 2000 until 2004. From 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 until his retirement in 2008, Iliescu was a Senator for the Social Democratic Party , whose honorary president he remains....
, who had become noted for his polemic views regarding the UDMR, with that of Frunda; contending that Iliescu was adopting a nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
discourse which had been discarded by the majority of voters, Gallagher described Frunda as the UDMR's "most moderate and fluent parliamentarian, who improved the UDMR's image for many Romanian voters".
Confirmed a senator by the legislative election of the same period
Romanian legislative election, 1996
Legislative elections were held in Romania on 3 November 1996, together with the Presidential election. The elections were won by the Romanian Democratic Convention, an alliance of liberal, Christian Democratic and green parties. This marked the first time that the Party of Social Democracy was out...
, he became Secretary of the Judicial Committee, also serving on the Committee for Monitoring and the Committee for Territorial Improvement and Local Authorities, as well as on the Committee for Human Rights (in 1999-2000) and, as Secretary, on the Judicial Committee for Appointments, Discipline, Immunities and Validations. Additionally, Frunda was Second Vice President of the PACE Judicial Committee.
Welcoming reconciliation with Hungary and measures leading to the Romania's European integration at a time when the UDMR joined Victor Ciorbea
Victor Ciorbea
Victor Ciorbea is a Romanian politician. He was the Mayor of Bucharest in 1996-1997 and, after his resignation from office, Prime Minister of Romania from 12 December 1996 to 30 March 1998.-Biography:...
's Democratic Convention cabinet, Frunda argued that this process had made unlikely the resurfacing of violent incidents such as the March 1990 ethnic clashes in Târgu Mureş
Ethnic clashes of Târgu Mures
Târgu Mureş is a town in Romania with an ethnically mixed population that was almost equally distributed between Romanians and Hungarians after the fall of the communist regime in December 1989. In March 1990, short-lived, but violent clashes occurred there between the two ethnic groups in the...
. In reference to the bilateral treaty signed by the two states, he stated: "from 1918 till now no leading figure in Romanian politics ever had the courage to say «let us normalise relations with Hungary»".
During the early 1990s, György Frunda represented in court Pál Cseresznyés, an ethnic Hungarian accused of taking part in the Târgu Mureş clashes. Previously sentenced to 10 years in prison, Cseresznyés was the recipient of a pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
issued by President Constantinescu (December 1996). Speaking at the time, Frunda stressed that Romanian courts investigating the 1990 incidents had only sentenced ethnic Hungarians and Roma
Roma minority in Romania
The Roma constitute one of the major minorities in Romania. According to the 2002 census, they number 535,140 people or 2.5% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians...
, and that Romanians had escaped punishment.
2000-2005
He was nominated the UDMR candidate for the presidential election of November 2000Romanian presidential election, 2000
These are the results of the Romanian presidential election of November 26, run-off held on December 10, 2000:-First round:-Run-off:...
, after winning the nomination in an inner-party race with the more radical László Tőkés
László Tokés
László Tőkés is a Romanian politician of Hungarian ethnicity, currently serving as a Member of the European Parliament and Vice President of the European Parliament ....
, the Union's Honorary Chairman. Frunda was endorsed by UDMR leader Béla Markó
Béla Markó
Béla Markó is a Romanian politician and writer of Hungarian ethnicity. The former leader of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania , he is also the Deputy Premier in the Emil Boc government ; he had also been Minister of State in the Tăriceanu cabinet between 2004 and 2007, in charge of...
, who advised party members not to vote for a change in policy; in reaction, Tőkés stressed that his adversary winning was going to "set in stone the wrong political line for a long time" (additionally, he accused the UDMR's leadership of displaying "moral decay"). Frunda was eventually voted by 59 members of the UDMR Council (Tőkés received 34 votes).
During the electoral campaign, Frunda invited the gay rights
Gay rights in Romania
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons in Romania may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Romania, like a number of other Eastern European countries, remains socially conservative with regard to the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citizens...
organization ACCEPT
ACCEPT
ACCEPT is the primary nongovernmental organization advocating for the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in Romania. It is based in Bucharest and also acts as the Romanian representative at ILGA-Europe...
to take part in a meeting with youth in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, at a time when Article 200 of the Romanian Penal Code
Article 200
Article 200 was a section of the Penal Code of Romania that criminalised homosexual relationships. It was introduced in 1968, under the communist regime, during the rule Nicolae Ceauşescu, and remained in force until it was repealed by the Năstase government on 22 June 2001...
, which criminalized homosexual relations, was being brought under public scrutiny. He received 696,989 votes (6.22%) in the national suffrage. During the second round of voting, when the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (Romania)
The Social Democratic Party is the major social-democratic political party in Romania. It was formed in 1992, after the post-communist National Salvation Front broke apart. It adopted its present name after a merger with a minor social-democratic party in 2001. Since its formation, it has always...
's Iliescu faced the Greater Romania Party
Greater Romania Party
The Greater Romania Party is a Romanian radical right-wing, ultra-nationalist political party, led by Corneliu Vadim Tudor. The party is sometimes referred to in English as the Great Romania Party....
's Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor is leader of the Greater Romania Party , writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament...
, he urged all political forces to isolate the latter, who is generally viewed as an extremist. Stating that he was "worried by the high score Mr. Vadim Tudor achieved", he declared that: "All political parties in Romania now have an obligation to isolate him and his party". Frunda was reelected a senator during the legislative election of the same month
Romanian legislative election, 2000
Legislative elections where be held in Romania on November 26, 2000, together with the Presidential election. The Greater Romania Party made big gains, as did the PDSR, which became the ruling party. The formerly governing Romanian Democratic Convention lost all its seats and was shortly...
, serving as President of the Committee for Human Rights after 2002.
In January 2001, Frunda was among the 38 parliamentarians from 18 countries who signed an appeal to have Ilie Ilaşcu
Ilie Ilascu
Ilie Ilaşcu is a Moldovan-born Romanian politician, famous for being sentenced to death by the separatist Transnistrian government for alleged involvement in two murders and for actions which have been described as Moldovan state-sponsored terrorism by Transnistrian government officials.-Political...
, an ethnic Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
n citizen who had been tried and sentenced to death by a Transnistria
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
n court, to be retried in a Council of Europe member state. He noted that the matter was problematic, since Ilaşcu was confirmed to have "shot and killed two people" by the Moldovan Supreme Court, but pointed out that the Transnistrian authorities were holding Ilaşcu in "inhumane conditions" (a situation which he defined as "inadmissible"). Beginning 2003, Frunda sparked controversy when he called for the posthumous rehabilitation
Political rehabilitation
Political rehabilitation is the process by which a member of a political organization or government who has fallen into disgrace, is restored to public life. It is usually applied to leaders or other prominent individuals who regain their prominence after a period in which they have no influence or...
of Albert Wass, a Hungarian writer convicted in Romania for participation in the Holocaust. His statement to the press argued that Wass, unlike Romania's World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
dictator Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
(who had been tried in a similar context), was the victim of procedural mistakes.
Frunda did not run in the presidential election of 2004
Romanian presidential election, 2004
A presidential election was held in Romania on November 28, 2004. 12 candidates competed for the office. As no candidate won more than 50% of the votes, a run-off was held on December 12, 2004, between the two leading candidates: prime minister Adrian Năstase of the ruling Social Democratic Party...
, and gave his backing to Markó, who was the UDMR's nominee; at a time when political parties were considering announcing candidatures for the post of Romanian Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
, Frunda was the one designated by the UDMR. During the televised debate hosted by TVR 1
TVR 1
TVR1 is the main channel of the Romanian public broadcaster TVR.The most important show of the channel is Jurnalul TVR, whose motto is Jurnalul aşa cum ar trebui sǎ fie! , but on 28 March 2009 was replaced by Telejurnal...
, in an unprecedented gesture, he summarized parts of the discussion in Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
.
Reelected a senator during the 2004 legislative election
Romanian legislative election, 2004
The Romanian legislative election of 2004 was held on 28 November 2004. 137 seats in the Senate of Romania and 314 seats in the Chamber of Deputies were up for election.The 2004 legislative election was held simultaneously with the presidential election...
, he became President of the Senate Committee for Human Rights, Religions and Minorities, and, inside the Council of Europe, First Vice President of the Monitoring Committees, member of the Committee on Human Rights, member of the Subcommittee on Human Rights, and member of several other committees and subcommittees; additionally, Frunda was the Council's Rapporteur for Nations, Minorities and Religion, and Rapporteur for the Judicial Committee on the "Concept of Nation".
Monitoring in Latvia and Russia
During October 2005, he visited LatviaLatvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
as Monitor, with the goal of establishing "whether Latvia is successfully fulfilling the commitments it undertook upon joining the Council of Europe" (part of the post-monitoring process).
He notably met with Premier
Prime Minister of Latvia
The Prime Minister of Latvia is the most powerful member of the Government of the Republic of Latvia, and presides over the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers...
Aigars Kalvītis
Aigars Kalvitis
Aigars Kalvītis is a Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia and current Chairman of the Board of Latvijas Balzams....
, and gave a positive assessment of the way in which Latvia had carried out its obligations, while pointing out that Russian Latvians
History of Russians in Latvia
Russians have been the largest ethnic minority in Latvia for the last two centuries.-Ancient Latvia:The Latvian word krievi for "Russians" and Krievija for "Russia" is thought to have originated from Krivichs, one of the tribal unions of Early East Slavs...
still faced some problems in naturalization
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
and voting rights. He called on the country to discard its reservations to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was signed on February 1995 by 22 member States of the Council of Europe ....
(in respect to the status of Latvian language
Latvian language
Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
as the sole language of administration), and to abandon the loyalty principle from its law on acquiring citizenship. President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
Vaira Vike-Freiberga
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga was the sixth President of Latvia, the first female President of Latvia and the first female leader in eastern Europe. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected in 2003.Dr...
indicated that the official status of Latvian was not subject for negotiation, and that social integration
Social integration
Social integration, in sociology and other social sciences, is the movement of minority groups such as ethnic minorities, refugees and underprivileged sections of a society into the mainstream of societies...
was a priority for the leadership. Based on Frunda's memorandum to the Council of Europe, the Committee on the Honoring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States recommended an end to post-monitoring, although Frunda himself proposed to prolong post-monitoring.
In November, as Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
prepared for taking over the presidency of the European Council's Committee of Ministers
Committee of Ministers
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe or commonly the Committee of Ministers is the Council of Europe's decision-making body. It comprises the Foreign Affairs Ministers of all the member states, or their permanent diplomatic representatives in Strasbourg...
, Frunda visited the country on behalf of the Monitoring Committee, and attempted to convince the Russian leadership to ratify the 6th additional protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights
European Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
, restricting the application of the death penalty to times of war or national emergency (see Capital punishment in Russia
Capital punishment in Russia
Capital punishment in Russia is currently under question, albeit legally allowed . There exists both an implicit moratorium established by the President and an explicit one, established by the nation's highest court. Russia has not executed anyone since 1996, and the regulations of the Council of...
). While he clarified that the Council was not going to sanction Russian representatives if the measure was not enforced, he argued that the country had to decide between siding with the majority of European states and the group of states represented by North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Report on the "Concept of Nation"
In early February 2006, concluding his report on the "Concept of Nation", Frunda caused controversy in his country after promoting the PACE Recommendation 1735, which, through its reference to a previous PACE document, Recommendation 43 (1998), was interpreted as a call for ethnic and regional autonomyRegional autonomy
Regional autonomy is the term for the decentralization of governance to outlying regions. Recent examples of disputes over autonomy include:* The Basque region of Spain* The Catalonian region of Spain...
in respect to regions such as Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
. In addition, Frunda was quoted as saying he did not endorse the nation-state
Nation-state
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
as defined by the Romanian Constitution
Constitution of Romania
The 1991 Constitution of Romania, adopted on 21 November 1991, voted in the referendum of 8 December 1991 and introduced on the same day, is the current fundamental law that establishes the structure of the government of Romania, the rights and obligations of the country's citizens, and its mode...
, and as stating "I do not represent Romania [in the Council of Europe]. I am the head of the Romanian Delegation, elected by 10 members who represented Romania at a parliamentary level". In reaction, the National Initiative Party
National Initiative Party
The National Initiative Party is a small Romanian political party....
, represented by independent Romanian parliamentarians, called for Frunda to be reprimanded by the Senate. Replying, Frunda indicated that the Recommendation was ineffectual in respect to Romania, and pointed out that all states who agreed to join the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
implicitly accepted to delegate powers of their respective national governments, stressing that his argument about the nation-state made reference to this latter process.
In the PACE Report, he concluded: "I do not think it is important to formulate a new concept of nation. The real issue behind the debate about a possible «21st century concept of nation» is not the definition itself, but the acceptance of a new way of thinking, of rethinking the nation, and specifically the transversality of the nation across boundaries – a nation often, but not always, deeply rooted in history. Following the two world wars in the 20th century, national borders were redrawn and, as a result, parts of the kin-state now live in the territory of one of the neighbouring states, where they represent «national minorities or communities»". According to the text, "The purpose of all these recommendations is to ensure that the concepts of «nation» and «national community (minority)» are interpreted flexibly and in good faith and to foster a peaceful and tolerant climate between the majority and national minorities in every Council of Europe member state".
Elaborating on the issue, he expressed his support for enlarging the concept of nation, for cultural autonomy
Minority rights
The term Minority Rights embodies two separate concepts: first, normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or sexual minorities, and second, collective rights accorded to minority groups...
, and for multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
(he stated: "Cultural autonomy means the right of a national minority, at a cultural level, for instance in schools, theaters and radio broadcasting, to decide for itself in the matter concerning it. It has nothing to do with territorial autonomy"). He later defined the way in which he was quoted by the press as "an injustice", and declared: "I have represented and will always represent my country, with dignity and in accordance with my best knowledge. But I have said, and it is true, that I did not draft this report as a Romanian senator, I have drafted it through appointment and with a mandate from the Council of Europe's Judicial Committee [...]".
Frunda received support from UDMR president Béla Markó
Béla Markó
Béla Markó is a Romanian politician and writer of Hungarian ethnicity. The former leader of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania , he is also the Deputy Premier in the Emil Boc government ; he had also been Minister of State in the Tăriceanu cabinet between 2004 and 2007, in charge of...
, who reacted to additional criticism from the Democratic Party's Emil Boc
Emil Boc
Emil Boc is the Prime Minister of Romania, having served since December 2008. In June 2004, he was elected Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, the largest city in Transylvania. Boc is also the president of the Democratic Liberal Party, who designated him as Prime Minister in 2008. On October 13, 2009, his...
, and indicated that he shared his colleague's views on the nation-state issue ("The concept of nation-state no longer exists in Europe"). He dismissed opposition to Frunda's attitude as "lectures in loyalty", and stated that Frunda's activity at the Council of Europe "deserves praise and appreciation".
Securitate file
A controversy was sparked in summer 2006, when files kept by the SecuritateSecuritate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
(Communist Romania
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
's secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
) on Frunda and 28 other politicians, including the UDMR's Markó and Attila Verestóy
Attila Verestóy
Attila Verestóy is a Romanian chemical engineer and politician. A member of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania , he has been a member of the Romanian Senate for Harghita County since 1990.-Biography:...
, were declassified
Classified information
Classified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...
by the Romanian Intelligence Service
Serviciul Român de Informatii
The Romanian Intelligence Service is the Romanian domestic intelligence service. It is considered the descendant of the former Departamentul Securităţii Statului , of the Socialist Republic of Romania. The official decree The Romanian Intelligence Service (', SRI) is the Romanian domestic...
(SRI). The opening of archived documents uncovered that Frunda had been the subject of a "network file" (a type of document which is generally associated with Securitate informants). Upon reviewing it, Frunda concluded that it was actually evidence of the Securitate having attempted and failed to enlist him, stressing that he never agreed to be drawn into collaboration. He added that he had signed two documents, confirming, respectively, his refusal to collaborate, and his pledge to maintain secrecy over having been contacted by the secret police. According to Frunda, only the latter document was present among those handed down by the SRI, which led him to question whether the file was complete.
The matter was made more problematic by the fact that Frunda had a second file kept on him, which proved that he was also the object of Securitate surveillance. Speaking at the time, the last Securitate chief for Mureş County
Mures County
Mureș is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș.-Geography:The county has a total area of 6,714 km²....
, Gheorghe Mărieş, claimed that he had first-hand information regarding Frunda's status as an informant, an allegation which the senator dismissed.
In September, György Frunda was interpellated by the National Anticorruption Prosecution Office
National Anticorruption Directorate
National Anticorruption Directorate , formerly National Anticorruption Prosecution Office , is the Romanian agency tasked with preventing, investigating and prosecuting corruption-related offenses that caused a material damage higher than €200,000 or whose value of the involved amounts or goods is...
over, as indicated by Frunda's statement, "several parliamentary debates, regarding a number of parliamentarians". During the same period, he asked to be heard by the CNSAS, an institution charged with investigating Securitate affiliations, and declared to the press that he rejected all notion of ever having been an informant or collaborator of the Securitate (while indicating that public figures who stated otherwise were legally liable).
The CNSAS ultimately cleared Frunda of the allegations (September 14, 2006), with six out of eight votes—the two abstaining members were Mircea Dinescu
Mircea Dinescu
Mircea Dinescu is a Romanian poet, journalist and editor.He was born in Slobozia, the son of Ştefan Dinescu, a metalworker and Aurelia . Dinescu studied at the Faculty of Journalism of the Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy, and was considered a gifted young poet during his youth, with several poetry...
and Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu
Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu
Constantin-Grigore Dumitrescu, also known as Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu or Ticu Dumitrescu , Olari, Prahova, was a Romanian politician and president of the Association of Romanian Former Political Prisoners....
. According to Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...
, the deliberation was tense, with Dinescu and Dumitrescu reportedly protesting the verdict during the actual procedures. Several days later, Dinescu, who took the decision of exposing what he saw as the CNSAS' problems, clarified his position in the case involving Frunda: "It was a complicated file and I could not vote in clear conscience, not knowing certain details". The National Initiative Party
National Initiative Party
The National Initiative Party is a small Romanian political party....
's Raluca Şandru, an independent member of the Chamber
Chamber of Deputies of Romania
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 315 seats, to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms...
, publicly appealed for the CNSAS to reconsider its decision and recall Frunda for questioning.
In early October, Frunda also proposed that the law regulating CNSAS activities be amended, in order to automatically include among Securitate collaborators those members of the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
who held political offices at a central, regional, or local level, and who took part in decision-making regarding political repression. The project drew opposition from the Social Democratic
Social Democratic Party (Romania)
The Social Democratic Party is the major social-democratic political party in Romania. It was formed in 1992, after the post-communist National Salvation Front broke apart. It adopted its present name after a merger with a minor social-democratic party in 2001. Since its formation, it has always...
senator Şerban Nicolae, who argued that the text was purposely designed to incriminate former President
President of Romania
The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...
Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu served as President of Romania from 1990 until 1996, and from 2000 until 2004. From 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 until his retirement in 2008, Iliescu was a Senator for the Social Democratic Party , whose honorary president he remains....
. Defending his bill, Frunda stressed that "it would be hypocritical to condemn Securitate cadres, but not their bosses". In addition, he proposed changes to define as Securitate collaborators those who had acted "with intent".
2007 debates
Later in the same month, in preparation for Romania's accession to the European UnionEuropean Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, he was nominated by the UDMR for a position in the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
(the National Liberal
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
Varujan Vosganian
Varujan Vosganian
Varujan Vosganian is a Romanian politician, economist, essayist and poet. A member of the National Liberal Party, Vosganian was Romania's Minister of Economy and Commerce in the Tăriceanu cabinet.-Biography:...
was selected for the post, before being replaced by Leonard Orban
Leonard Orban
Leonard Orban is a Romanian independent technocrat who served as the Commissioner for Multilingualism in the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union . He was responsible for the EU language policy and was the first Romanian Commissioner and the first member of the Commission...
). Speaking in February 2007, Frunda criticized members of his party for having failed to promote a challenger for Markó during elections for its presidency. Referring to the UDMR faction formed around Sándor Kónya-Hamar
Sándor Kónya-Hamar
Sándor Kónya-Hamar is an ethnic Hungarian politician in Romania and Member of the European Parliament...
, Tibor Toró, and Péter Eckstein-Kovács
Péter Eckstein-Kovács
Péter Eckstein-Kovács is a Romanian lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania , he was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Cluj County from 1990 to 1992 and a member of the Cluj-Napoca city council from 1992 to 1996...
, he argued its alleged policy of "not providing viable written-down alternatives denotes [its] political weakness".
During spring, Frunda supported his party's option to impeach
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
President Traian Băsescu
Traian Basescu
Traian Băsescu is the current President of Romania. After serving as the mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, he was elected president in the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2004 and inaugurated on December 20, 2004...
for allegedly unconstitutional conduct. Before the May referendum
Romanian presidential impeachment referendum, 2007
The Romanian presidential impeachment referendum of 2007 was conducted in order to determine whether the president of Romania Traian Băsescu should be forced to step down.On April 19, 2007 the Romanian parliament suspended Băsescu...
reconfirmed Băsescu, Frunda commented on the UDMR's choice before TVR 1
TVR 1
TVR1 is the main channel of the Romanian public broadcaster TVR.The most important show of the channel is Jurnalul TVR, whose motto is Jurnalul aşa cum ar trebui sǎ fie! , but on 28 March 2009 was replaced by Telejurnal...
cameras, confronted with the pro-Băsescu intellectual Gabriel Liiceanu
Gabriel Liiceanu
Gabriel Liiceanu is a Romanian philosopher.He graduated from University of Bucharest's Faculty of Philosophy in 1965, and from Faculty of Classical Languages in 1973. He earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Bucharest in 1976....
. On the occasion, Liiceanu asked Frunda to explain how the UDMR could tolerate being on the same pro-impeachment camp as the Greater Romania Party
Greater Romania Party
The Greater Romania Party is a Romanian radical right-wing, ultra-nationalist political party, led by Corneliu Vadim Tudor. The party is sometimes referred to in English as the Great Romania Party....
; according to Dilema Veche
Dilema Veche
Dilema veche , formerly Dilema, is a Romanian weekly journal of culture, criticism and opinion.- History :It was founded as Dilema in 1993 by art critic Andrei Pleşu and up until the end of 2003 it was edited by an independent cultural body, Fundaţia Culturală Română...
political commentator Cristian Ghinea, the reply was unsatisfactory. Ghinea sarcastically noted that there was an additional paradox to be noted, since the Greater Romania agenda was "anti-mafia
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
", whereas Frunda "now seems to me the most cleaned-up front for the corrupt system
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
."
In June–July 2007, Frunda was at the center of a controversy provoked when Dick Marty
Dick Marty
Dick Marty is a Swiss politician and former state prosecutor of the canton of Ticino. He is a member of the Swiss Council of States , and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.-Education:Marty holds a doctorate in law from the University of Neuchâtel with the thesis:...
, a Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
representative to the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, publicized his report on the existence of black site
Black site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. Recently, the term has gained notoriety in describing secret prisons operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency , generally outside of U.S. territory and legal jurisdiction. It...
s allegedly maintained by the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
in several Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an countries (Romania included). As Romanian authorities denied the charge, National Liberal senator Norica Nicolai
Norica Nicolai
Norica Nicolai is a Romanian lawyer and politician. A member of the National Liberal Party , she was a member of the Romanian Senate for Cluj County from 2000 to 2008, and has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2009...
accused Frunda of wanting to discredit Romania by providing Marty with necessary information; in response, Frunda argued that this actually had been furnished by the Romanian institutions, which, he indicated, had a duty to report them. On July 3, 2007, the Democratic Party
Democratic Liberal Party (Romania)
The Democratic Liberal Party is a populist, centre-right party in Romania. It was formed on 15 December 2007, when the Democratic Party merged with the Liberal Democratic Party. From 2004 to 2007, the Democratic Party was part of the governing Justice and Truth Alliance...
representatives to the Parliamentary Assembly asked the Romanian Parliament to recall Frunda from his leadership of the delegation, claiming that he had been absent from the Judicial Committee during deliberations over Marty's report (they also indicated that they were not going to attend meetings at the Council of Europe until Marty would come and verify his conclusions on the spot). Chamber
Chamber of Deputies of Romania
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 315 seats, to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms...
leader Bogdan Olteanu
Bogdan Olteanu
Bogdan Olteanu is a Romanian politician and lawyer. He was the president of the Chamber of Deputies between 2006 and 2008....
, a member of the National Liberal Party, criticized the decision, indicating that such resolutions could only be initiated by Parliament.
2007-2008 candidatures and new Senate term
Frunda ran on the UDMR list for the European ParliamentEuropean Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
election of November 2007
European Parliament election, 2007 (Romania)
Romania elected its members of the European Parliament for the first time on 25 November 2007; the election was initially scheduled for 13 May, but the PM postponed it for domestic political reasons...
. The election was marked by László Tőkés
László Tokés
László Tőkés is a Romanian politician of Hungarian ethnicity, currently serving as a Member of the European Parliament and Vice President of the European Parliament ....
' decision to run as an independent, which caused the UDMR to express its disappointment. Upon announcing his own candidature in September, György Frunda indicated that having two contenders from the Hungarian minority could result in the community not being at all represented in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, and argued that Tőkés would have done best to withdraw from the race. Frunda eventually won the MEP
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
seat but, on December 1, 2007, announced that he was giving it up in favor of party colleague Iuliu Winkler
Iuliu Winkler
Iuliu Winkler is a Romanian engineer, economist and politician. A member of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania , he was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Hunedoara County from 2000 to 2004...
, explaining that he was being instead considered for the presidency of the PACE Judicial Committee. He stated: "I have decided it was more important for me and for the Hungarian community in Romania and, not least, for Romania, if I were to take up [the PACE] office." Frunda was subsequently involved in discussions about prison reform
Prison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system.-History:Prisons have only been used as the primary punishment for criminal acts in the last couple of centuries...
, speaking in favor of judicial methods to tackle the widespread inmate overcrowding, and supporting a more generalized use of parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
.
Frunda again won a Senate seat after running in the November 2008 election
Romanian legislative election, 2008
Legislative elections were held in Romania on November 30, 2008. The Democratic Liberal Party won most seats in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, although the alliance headed by the Social Democratic Party won a fractionally higher vote share.-Electoral System:President Traian Băsescu...
, the first such suffrage to result in mixed member proportional representation
Mixed member proportional representation
Mixed-member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is a voting system originally used to elect representatives to the German Bundestag, and nowadays adopted by numerous legislatures around the world...
at a newly-established electoral college
Electoral college
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...
level. In Mureş County, the three main UDMR contenders for the electoral college seats were himself, Béla Markó, and László Borbély
László Borbély
László Borbély is a Romanian economist and politician. A member of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania , he has been a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Mureş County since 2000, having previously served there from 1990 to 1996...
. In October, before Social Democratic leader Mircea Geoană
Mircea Geoana
Dan Mircea Geoană is a Romanian politician, who served as president of the upper chamber of the Romanian Parliament, the Senate from December 20, 2008 until he was revoked by the senators on November 23, 2011. From 21 April 2005 until 21 February 2010 he was the head of the Partidul Social...
was elected Senate Chairman, Béla Markó had announced that he favored Frunda for that office, were UDMR in a position to nominate a candidate.
Frunda's new term in the Senate was touched by controversy. Shortly after he returned to his seat, his new statement of financial interests revealed that he is by far the richest parliamentarian in Mureş. In June 2009, a Parliament administrative report showed that his office had cost the public 103,197 new lei
Romanian leu
The leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
in state-funded expenses (the costliest mandate).
In July 2010, Frunda introduced law amendments which drastically limited powers for the government-backed National Integrity Agency (ANI), an organism previously charged with verifying the assets and revenue statements of politicians; his objections were passed into law, mainly with backing from the opposition Social Democrats and the National Liberals, and with additional votes from the governing Democratic Liberal Party
Democratic Liberal Party (Romania)
The Democratic Liberal Party is a populist, centre-right party in Romania. It was formed on 15 December 2007, when the Democratic Party merged with the Liberal Democratic Party. From 2004 to 2007, the Democratic Party was part of the governing Justice and Truth Alliance...
and UDMR. The anti-ANI legislation, unsuccessfully rejected by President Bǎsescu, was received with strong criticism by various journalists, political commentators and civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
opinion leaders. Revista 22
Revista 22
Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....
panelist Andreea Pora summarized Frunda's attempts to fight the ANI law, dating back to Monica Macovei
Monica Macovei
Monica Luisa Macovei is a Romanian politician, lawyer and former prosecutor, currently a Member of the European Parliament from the Democratic Liberal Party. She was the Minister of Justice of Romania in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu...
's 2005 proposals, and described Frunda as a "devil's advocate
Devil's advocate
In common parlance, a devil's advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily agree with, just for the sake of argument. In taking such position, the individual taking on the devil's advocate role seeks to engage others in an argumentative...
" for those who wanted "a free passage to deals, wrongdoings and theft". She also noted that the senator was himself a reputed target for ANI investigators. Writing in 2002 for România Literară
România Literară
România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...
review, academic Mircea Mihăieş contrasted Frunda's "new tone and elegance" of the 1990s with his support of Social Democratic moves to keep dignitaries' fortunes under secrecy. Cristian Ghinea, who spoke of several attempts on Frunda's part to redefine the scope of ANI investigations as favoring the corrupt under the pretext of human rights concerns (and against the scope of European monitoring
2007 enlargement of the European Union
The 2007 enlargement of the European Union saw Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union on 1 January 2007. It was the latest expansion of the EU, though considered by the European Commission as part of the same wave as the 2004 enlargement of the European Union.-Negotiations:Romania was the...
), ridiculed the association of interests between Frunda and the new National Liberal leader, Crin Antonescu
Crin Antonescu
George-Crin-Laurenţiu Antonescu is a Romanian politician, currently serving as President of the National Liberal Party . He was a candidate for the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2009. He is a member of the Senate, his election having taken place during the 2008 legislative election...
.
Shortly after the Senate vote, Democratic Liberal Party senator Iulian Urban, who had abstained, denounced a political deal between his own group and the UDMR, through which Frunda was selected to uphold a measure coveted by PDL representatives, but unpopular with the electorate. Himself hailing from Democratic Liberal politics, President Bǎsescu also went on record with a claim that, in proposing the vote, Frunda had acted "against Romania's interests", compromising its standing and credibility within the European Union.