Radu Vasile (ˈradu vaˈsile; born 10 October 1942, Drăgăşani

Dragasani

Drăgăşani is a city in Vâlcea County, Romania, near the right bank of the Olt river, and on the railway between Caracal and Râmnicu Vâlcea. The city is well known for the vineyards on the neighboring hills that produce some of the best Wallachian wines....

) is a Romania

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 politician, historian and poet.

Education and Professional Activity

• 1967 - Graduate, with exceptional results, of the Faculty of History - University of Bucharest. For political reasons (his father having been a political prisoner, a lawyer, deceased in 1986) he was barred access to higher education immediately after graduating school
• 1971 - Teaching assistant at Faculty of Economic History at Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies
• 1977 - Ph.D. in economics
• 1978 - Lecturer at the same faculty
• After 1989 - Elected (with students support) Vice Dean of Faculty of Commerce at Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, till 1992
• After 1990 - Refresher studies in European Integration (Thessaloniki and Munich)
• From 1994 - University Professor

Originally a member of the National Peasants' Party

National Peasants' Party

The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...

, Vasile served as the Prime Minister of Romania

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...

 between April 17, 1998 and December 13, 1999, and was notably confronted with the last Mineriad

Mineriad

See also The 1990s: the rise and decline of miners' unionsA Mineriad is the term used to name any of the successive violent interventions of miners in Bucharest. These interventions were generally seen as aimed at wrestling policy changes or simply material advantages from the current political...

 (February 1999). Between 2000 and 2004, he was a Senator

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...

 from the Democratic Party (PD). Vasile published poetry under the pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

Radu Mischiu.