Sever Voinescu
Encyclopedia
Sever Voinescu (ˈsever vojˈnesku, full last name Voinescu-Cotoi; born June 19, 1969) is a Romania
n journalist, political analyst, diplomat and right-wing politician. A Foreign Affairs Ministry figure during the mid-1990s, he was later a Consul General of Romania in Chicago
, United States
. Voinescu became known as a columnist for Dilema Veche
weekly and Cotidianul
daily, and worked for the Institute for Public Policies, a political think tank
. As pundit, Voinescu supports conservative
ideas, and criticizes left-wing and welfare state
solutions as applied to his country.
Often described as a member of the intellectual faction close to President
Traian Băsescu
, Voinescu was characterized by political opponents as a person lacking in independence, a verdict which, in 2007, cost him advancement in the diplomatic service. He subsequently joined the Democratic Liberal Party
(PDL), running in the 2008 legislative election
and earning a deputy
seat for Ploieşti
. From April 2009 to February 2011, he was Secretary of the Deputies' Chamber.
During his time in office, Sever Voinescu became known as a supporter of inner-party reform and pressed for the PDL's transformation into a conservative group, although he is still noted for taking sides against stronger critics of the party line. He also regularly spoke out against media opponents of Băsescu and the PDL, accusing part of the press of being politically controlled by the opposition parties. Voinescu was subsequently involved in several political controversies, including claims that he has used his Chamber position to push for electoral fraud
.
area, and being a "child of the tower block
". Baptized Romanian Orthodox
, and identifying himself with liberal Orthodoxy, he grew up into a supporter of the social and political involvement of religious individuals, and recommends tolerance between believers and non-believers. Voinescu graduated from the Pedagogic High School's primary school, the Alexander John Cuza
High School's gymnasium
, and the Mihai Viteazul National College, while training in parallel with an amateur basketball
team.
A graduate of the University of Bucharest
Faculty of Law in 1992, he was a practicing lawyer until 1996. Initially, Voinescu was a trainee lawyer in his native city, but later joined a female colleague in opening a law firm, based in Bucharest
. In parallel, he became noted for his cultural and political column in Dilema Veche (known then as just Dilema). His debut, Voinescu recalls, occurred in 1994, and resulted in his "addiction" to writing. According to a presentation for Înapoi la argument, the Romanian Television
talk show of philosopher Horia-Roman Patapievici
: "Sever Voinescu is one of the distinct voices in Romanian cultural journalism. His writing is in fact a moral attitude from a well-defined perspective, with no conjectural ambiguities." In the political climate following the 1989 Revolution
, Voinescu also became active on the public scene, originally as a member of the civil society
platform known as Group for Social Dialogue
(a membership which, in 2008, he listed as one of the "tidbits in my biography that I take pride in").
Voinescu joined the Bucharest bar association
in 1994. In 1995-1997, he was Assistant Professor for the Academy of Economic Studies (ASE) Law Faculty. He had previously given seminar
-level classes at the ASE and several private universities. For a while in 1997, some months after the 1996 legislative election
, which were won by the right-wing Romanian Democratic Convention
(CDR), he was Counselor to the General Secretariat of the Victor Ciorbea
government, answering to Remus Opriş
. He referred to this point in his career as "an interesting turn", and recounts that the CDR victory had made him "enthusiastic". From 1998 to 2000, during the CDR premierships
of Radu Vasile
and Mugur Isărescu
, Voinescu served as General Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under Ministers Andrei Pleşu
and Petre Roman
. Voinescu recounts that he accepted the request because it had been voiced by Dilema Veche editor Pleşu, a man whom he calls his "mentor".
Between 2000 and 2003, he was assigned the diplomatic office in Chicago, returning to lead the Institute for Public Policies' Foreign Policies and International Relations Program. He had been relieved from diplomatic office by the new Social Democratic
executive of Adrian Năstase
, and reflects back on the period: "I left the diplomatic career without a scandal and without regrets." During the following period, Sever Voinescu began contributing a political column to Cotidianul. He also became noted a supporter of America's War on Terror
, including the Second Iraq War. These sentiments were echoed in his columns for Dilema, and criticized from a Francophile
position by academic Roxana Ologeanu. Voinescu's articles covered a wide range of subjects, among which reviewers highlight his interventions on the topic of Romanian economy
, his posthumous homage to American literary theorist Susan Sontag
, and his defense of Chalcedonian Christianity against neo-Gnosticism
.
and presidential
elections, when the Social Democrats were defeated by the Justice and Truth coalition (DA), which also successfully endorsed Băsescu as President. As DA split into the Democratic Party (later PDL) and the National Liberals
, the latter of which unsuccessfully endorsed the anti-Băsescu impeachment referendum of 2007
, Voinescu expressed his support for the president. At that time, he joined 49 other intellectuals in signing an open letter
addressed to the National Liberal Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
government, questioning its policies and supporting those of the president. Among the other signatories were Patapievici, Adriana Babeţi, Hannelore Baier, Mircea Cărtărescu
, Magda Cârneci, Ruxandra Cesereanu
, Livius Ciocârlie, Andrei Cornea, Sabina Fati, Florin Gabrea, Sorin Ilieşiu, Gabriel Liiceanu
, Mircea Mihăieş, Dan C. Mihăilescu, Virgil Nemoianu
, Andrei Oişteanu
, Dan Perjovschi
, Andrei Pippidi, Şerban Rădulescu-Zoner, Victor Rebengiuc
, Dan Tapalagă, Vladimir Tismăneanu
, Florin Ţurcanu, Traian Ungureanu and Alexandru Zub
.
Just days before the referendum was carried by the pro-Băsescu option, the president endorsed Sever Voinescu for the office of Romanian Ambassador to the United States. This was coupled with his proposal to have journalist Traian Ungureanu appointed for the similar office in the United Kingdom
. The proposals were presented to the Senate
's Foreign Policy Committee, where Voinescu was rejected with 16 votes to 7. On the occasion, Social Democratic senator and Committee President Mircea Geoană
, himself a former Ambassador to Washington
, claimed that Voinescu's support for Băsescu made him a partisan option, and therefore unsuited for the office. In a November 2008 interview with Evenimentul Zilei
, Voinescu provided his own take on the event, commenting that the reason presented by the Committee was "purely political", and arguing that: "In that [pre-referendum] context they would have outvoted God himself, had he been supported by Băsescu. I had come forth with a serious program, one I intended to discuss over with the Committee. I was suggesting a number of alternatives as a framework for our future relationship with the USA, but the Committee members were rather more interested in evaluating my activities as a journalist. They couldn't care less about my diplomatic program, but they were heartbroken over what I had published as a political commentator." According to România Liberă
newspaper, Voinescu was specifically rejected for the "colums favorable to President Băsescu that he had published in the press."
While the Constitution
gave Băsescu the power of decision in the matter, his temporary loss of office and replacement with Nicolae Văcăroiu
meant that Voinescu's name was no longer an option. In summer 2007, the new Minister, Adrian Cioroianu
, was engaged in a lengthy debate with reconfirmed President Băsescu, during which time no new ambassadors were appointed in several world capitals.
in his native Prahova County
. This was in view of the 2008 legislative election
, the first such suffrage in Romania to be based on mixed member proportional representation
and electoral college
s. In that article, Voinescu stated: "I have decided to run [...] in my native city of Ploieşti. The college comprises the neighborhood where I was born, grew up, lived through the first ages of youth and here my parents still live." Commenting on his motivation, Voinescu also wrote: "our politicians are trapped in moral and intellectual darkness which reaches the level of national catastrophe. I enter the arena because I want to bring clarity within the nebula."
In a the 2008 interview with Evenimentul Zilei, he elaborated: "There are moments in life when one wants to see if one is capable of doing what he requires others to do." At the same time, he clarified that his choice to rally with the PDL was motivated by the party representing "the authentic Right", and by the National Liberals experiencing "a temporary drift", arguing that he found a post-electoral alliance with the Social Democrats "impossible [and] stinking", whereas the National Liberal Party had the "moral obligation" of joining the PDL in a new coalition. He also pointed out that, although a member of a faction politically allied with Băsescu, he did not intend to placate the latter in his public statements, and criticized his party for resorting to "suspicious borrowings [and] bizarre additions" in order to meet the necessary number of candidates. Believed by Evenimentul Zilei to be the natural choice for a PDL Foreign Minister, he spoke in favor of continuing a close cooperation with the United States, and justified Romania's traditional qualms toward Russia
. After joining the party, Voinescu became an Administrative Board member for its think tank, the Institute for People Studies.
The candidature sparked negative comments from Jurnalul Naţional
columnist Victor Ciutacu
, who paralleled it with news that journalists Ungureanu and Cătălin Avramescu were also planning to run in elections as PDL affiliates. Although describing Voinescu as "a coherent journalist", Ciutacu alleged that all three were basing their actions on their support for Băsescu, and that they were thus comparable to lăutari
singers, "who, depending on how good their showmanship is, are rewarded by the man sitting at the head of the table." In contrast, journalists at Gândul
concluded that both Voinescu and Avramescu were electoral assets coveted by PDL leader Emil Boc
, who, like other public figures from non-politicized areas, could bring help the party earn extra votes in the post-party-list
era.
Voinescu won the seat in the 10th Electoral College for Prahova County. România Liberă also noted that his constituency was already favorable to the PDL. All other seats in Ploieşti were claimed by PDL members—Andrei Sava and Roberta Alma Anastase
as the other two deputies, Gabriel Sandu
as senator. In a January 2009 interview with Academia Caţavencu
s Eugen Istodor, Voinescu stated his dissatisfaction with the post-election Emil Boc cabinet, founded around a PDL-PSD alliance at the end of failed negotiations between the PDL and the National Liberals. He argued: "I am not part of any decision structure within the PDL, so there was no reason for me to be asked [what I though about the PSD alliance]. [...] Within the PDL, there is a majority sentiment that it was the best of rationally possible solutions. The party is now in a Panglossian moment. But there also exists a lucid minority which continues to believe that it was not at all the best best of rationally possible solutions." He added: "For my case, of what was said during the campaign, as well as from things before, nothing has changed. I have no reason to believe that the PSD is better now than when it was impeaching the president. [...] The new PSD elite is different from the old one only in the sense that it is more flexible, more versatile, more chameleonic."
. He was cited in the press stating: "I accepted this position for at least two reasons, the first being that I am a supporter of Traian Băsescu as a political project and that as both a politician and a citizen I wish to apply all my forces so that Traian Băsescu will win in these elections". In late November, during the two rounds of voting, Voinescu presented the official PDL viewpoint on the publicized video sample which seemed to show Băsescu punching a child. Voinescu's suggested that the images had been faked by the PDL's political rivals and, in reference to the press' reaction, argued: "the electoral campaign has fully entered its most despicable stage. Instead of debates between the candidates and letting the citizens decide, in the absence of any other influences, who should be the one to lead the country for the next five years, we have come to discuss a dubious, murky film, promoted on the screens of [media] mogul television stations with an obvious electioneering purpose." Following Băsescu's eventual reelection, Voinescu also subjected to public ridicule the claims of various PSD members that their candidate, Mircea Geoană
, had been a victim of negative parapsychological
techniques, such as "energy attacks" and "violet flame" power.
In January, Voinescu had supported the initiative of fellow junior PDL-ists Cristian Preda
and Monica Macovei
to reform the PDL from within by imposing new recruitment and internal promotion policies, and also gave backing to Sorin Frunzăverde
's suggestion of reconstituting the PDL into a "People's Party
". Their collective criticism of the Boc leadership was responded to by the Premier, who stated that both Preda and Voinescu needed to attend more party conferences and, through "clarification", come to terms with the party line. The verdict was reviewed negatively by political scientist Aurelian Giugăl, a critic of the Boc cabinet, who contrasted Boc's statement with the PDL having just welcomed into its ranks the "pathetic" nonconformist Honorius Prigoană, and concluded that "the presidential party" was only mimicking institutional reform.
In early 2010, Voinescu was involved in a publicized polemic with his PDL colleague Cristian Preda, regarding the party's doctrines and the measure of involvement on the part of President Băsescu. The debate was sparked in February by Voinescu's own comments, according to which the PDL needed to emphasize its support for Băsescu's political agenda and, as a consequence, adopt "a larger measure of Băsescianism". Preda reacted against the statement on his blog
, where the wording used by Voinescu was referred to as "an unfortunate choice". Preda noted that he partly shared Voinescu's apprehension of "some PDL practices". He argued instead that there existed an inner-party struggle between old and new PDL members, in which the former category, "claiming lineage precisely from Traian Băsescu", could block the newer members out of power. Voinescu, who stated his dissatisfaction at being attacked on Preda's blog, noted: "I don't know why Cristian Preda wishes at all costs for us to quarrel in public. I have been following his quest for media glory for a while now and I'm bemused. If he has something to tell me, he knows where to find me." Discussing the core of Preda's objection, he added: "I understand that he is annoyed by the political adjectivization
of the president's name [as Băsescianism]. That's his business. From what I found out, he says that there's now a need for answers to social issues and not invented words. I cannot believe that a phrase this trite, a phrase so much like a putrid slogan, could have been written down by Cristian Preda."
In reply, Preda noted "regretting" that Voinescu "has joined the team [of PDL members] who are intimated by public dialogue within the new media" (a group he identified with PDL activist Ioan Oltean). However, in an October interview with Istodor, Preda suggested that he still identified his own political partisanship with "the triad" of Voinescu, Macovei and Teodor Baconschi
within a "collective identity" of PDL reformists, noting that he rejected the opposition parties as merely "preservers of the welfare state
."
By then, Voinescu had also joined those PDL politicians who publicly asked for the new Boc executive (formed by the PDL and the Hungarian Democratic Union
, with the PSD in opposition) to resign and be replaced with a "more flexible" variant, in line with the core electorate's wishes. During summer 2010, when Boc survived a motion of no confidence
initiated by the PSD, Voinescu expressed a reserved position on the political consequences. Speaking at the time for B1 TV
, he called the referred to the PSD's motion as "a poorly written lampoon", but warned that a cabinet reshuffle
was in order. In September of that year, Voinescu and Elena Udrea
were among those PDL parliamentarians who voted in favor of deposing the Boc cabinet, while others considered a reshuffling option. Voinescu's rationale was that the government policies had managed to erode grassroots support for the PDL, and the defeat of his option was reported by observers as a failure of the PDL's reform-minded wing.
. The scandal formed part of a national debate on the government-proposed measures to counter the post-2007 economic slump and public spending with right-wing policies, against the opposition-backed social security
system. According to media and opposition reports, during the prolonged Chamber vote on the revised Law on Pensions, after opposition representatives had chosen to leave the hall in protest and the voting machine
went out of order, Anastase over-counted the number of parliamentarians present in the hall, and PDL legislation was passed against consensus. As a result, the Social Democrats filed a legal complaint, citing malfeasance in office
, electoral fraud
and forgery
.
Speaking for his party, PSD deputy Radu Moldovan alleged that the two Chamber leaders had implicitly "admitted" the deed they stood accused of, further accusing them of having displayed "illegal and criminal behavior against 6 million [old age pensioners]", and calling for the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. In reply, PDL politicians expressed support for both figures, and argued that there was no proof of illegality in their actions. Early on, PDL Chamber group leader Mircea Toader stated that the chaotic procedures and the presence of unruly deputies around the rostrum meant that CCTV footage of the procedure was inconclusive. Cristian Preda spoke of the voting inaccuracies as "an error" on the part of Anastase and Voinescu, claiming that the illegal but allegedly commonplace absentee ballot
had rendered unreliable all Chamber attendance reports. In a November interview with Radio France Internationale
, Preda elaborated that the party as a whole needed to apologize for the "embarrassing" incident, and, while noting that Anastase's removal was not an option, asked Voinescu to present a formal explanation. The scandal reverberated at Dilema Veche, when poet Şerban Foarţă
announced that he ceased contributing, not wishing for his name to feature alongside that of Voinescu, "an unfrequentable character".
During October 2010, Voinescu resumed his political conflict with the anti-Băsescu media outlets: Dan Voiculescu
's Intact Media Group and Sorin Ovidiu Vântu
's Realitatea-Caţavencu
. In a public statement, the deputy accused both "moguls" of intending to "rob the public treasury" with backing from the PSD, and of staging an intense "defamation campaign" against President Băsescu, who would not assist them in deferring formal investigations into their businesses. As a result, Sorin Ovidiu Vântu announced that he was going to file a civil suit against Voinescu, Premier Boc and Elena Udrea, noting that he was not going to tolerate any further accusations that he himself was organizing a putsch (as once stated by Udrea). Vântu reportedly considered requesting 250,000 euro
in damages from Voinescu, who had qualified Vântu's 1990s Gelsor-Fondul Naţional de Investiţii investment scheme as a "mega-confidence trick" and had alleged that Vântu made a profit withdrawing his assets before the scheme crashed.
At the time, Voinescu made controversial live appearances on another private network, Oglinda Television (OTV), which critics, including Voinescu himself, regard as a low-brow enterprise in the realm of tabloid media
. In a Dilema Veche piece, Voinescu himself described the station as usually exploring "the shady and humid underground" of human expectations; he implied that everyone watches OTV, but that only some will admit it. Reacting to this characterization, Observator Cultural
editor Carmen Muşat accused Voinescu of using a questionable media resource to increase Băsescu's exposure, against his own beliefs. TV critic and Dilema colleague Cezar Paul-Bădescu, who describes OTV as "a station specializing in cadavers and characters on the fringe of humanity", declared himself puzzled by Voinescu's rationale, but noted: "maybe [his reasons are] the same ones that prompted president Băsescu to conclude, back in the day, that said channel was frequentable". Other cultural magazines also reacted negatively to Voinescu's explanation of OTV's secret fan base: România Literară
called his analysis "useless and dangerous", while Luceafărul took offense from the implication "that we are all headless beings with morbid inclinations".
In February 2011, Voinescu withdrew from the post of Chamber Secretary, as it was due to fall to a deputy of the Romanian ethnic minorities parties
in the ensuing legislative session. In July, the High Court of Cassation and Justice
ruled that prosecution in the Voinescu-Anastase case was unwarranted, since the contestants had not contested the vote through parliamentary procedure, as described by Chamber's internal regulations.
, and were noted as a countercritique of Marxist
takes on the world crisis, with suggestions that the memory of communism
as a "criminal utopia" needed to be preserved in unadulterated fashion, for the benefit of future generations. In 2009, he contributed to a Humanitas
homage volume for Andrei Pleşu
, titled O filozofie a intervalului ("A Philosophy of the Interval"). Invited by Vladimir Tismăneanu
, he was also a contributor to Verso review. His political essay was later included in the anthology Anatomia resentimentului ("The Anatomy of Resentment", Editura Curtea Veche
, 2010).
The renewed contributions in these fields received criticism from various cultural and political reviewers. His severity in reacting to news that Barack Obama
was considering a détente
with the Taliban was covered, with irony, by Luceafărul magazine. It noted: "our specialists in the headbutting industry [...] have for a main mental preoccupation the handing of unneeded advice and moral slaps to the world's greatest leaders." In commentary he posted on the Voxpublica platform, Voinescu illustrated his defense of capitalism
with suggestions that multinational corporation
s were still hiring, recommending Romanians to seek retraining
; these views were criticized as specious and uncompassionate by essayist Liviu Ornea, who suggested that Voinescu's radicalism was even harming the PDL. Voinescu's activity as panelist was touched by another kind of controversy: in August 2010, Voinescu was described in the press as a "plagiarist
", for a Dilema article on the Yemeni crackdown
, which, it was argued, closely resembled a New York Times editorial; Voinescu defended his piece as a metanarrative
. One of Voinescu's parables on the crisis issue was ridiculed by Luceafărul, who noted that it made the same point as an earlier contribution by Vintilă Mihăilescu
, and concluded that Voinescu was no longer in the habit of actually reading Dilema Veche.
In summer 2011, with fellow pundits Valeriu Stoica
and Cătălin Avramescu, Sever Voinescu attended the conference tour on "Issues of the Romanian Right", jointly organized by the PDL's Institute for People's Studies and the Hanns Seidel Foundation. During one such event in Focşani
, he and Stoica debated policy: Stoica expressed the belief that PDL, a "cocktail" of liberalism
, conservatism
and Christian democracy
, needed to stand united behind Boc's economic measures; contrarily, Voinescu assessed that cabinet ministers less committed to laissez-faire
needed to be discarded. Voinescu also had a debate with senator and senior PDL member Radu F. Alexandru. A critic of Băsescu's continued involvement with the PDL, Alexandru spoke out against the reformists' alleged practice of venting out complaints through mass media, but not at party conferences.
Shortly after, responding to criticism of Boc's governing practice, Băsescu publicized a reaction to inner PDL conflicts which nominated Voinescu and Preda as factors of disturbance: "Had I been the involved, the PDL would have been more adroit in its political action. There would have been no PDL politician not to follow the golden rule. We would be discussing these issues on the inside and, once something were set, we would all be abiding by it. No matter if they're named Preda, Sever Voinescu [or] Radu F. Alexandru, they would not be in the party had I been the one running it. Such things display the cowardice of these people. It's easy to issue a statement on TV and then grow in importance". Băsescu added that, instead of focusing on Boc, Voinescu should have spoken out against the "BVB triad" of PDL-ists who resist a change of platform: Radu Berceanu
, Adriean Videanu
and Vasile Blaga
. In reply, Voinescu noted that the statement had troubled him, and that he even gave thought to resigning from the PDL.
Writing in a guest editorial for Revista 22
in September of that year, Voinescu referred to the need for a conservative pole to emerge in modern Romanian politics. His text argues: "In today's Romania, it is not at all hard to be a liberal or a socialist
. What's hard is being a conservative. On another level, in today's Romania it is not at all hard to be an egotist, nor to cement yourself, forevermore, into the condition of a socially-assisted person. What's hard is to be a man of common sense, capable of balancing his own interest against that of others, after taking charge of his own destiny." According to Voinescu, there is an untapped electorate that consistently votes against left-wing policies, but is increasingly disenchanted with the effects of right-wing governance, and tacitly supporting any conservative, conviction politics
, "Thatcherite
" solution to Romania's woes. He suggested that its recovery by the PDL would be that party's "great chance". Voinescu also argued that old-school Romanian conservatism had been hijacked in the 1990s by Dan Voiculescu's eponymous party
: "Can one imagine a more scandalous usurpation?"
. He sketched out and advanced a proposal for a PDL Code of Conduct, which is supposed to regulate the party's response to criminal charges brought up against its politicians (past cases include Monica Iacob Ridzi or Dan Păsat), in what he described as an effort to increase transparency. On the occasion, Voinescu expressed discontent that the document, although nominally backed by Boc and by Macovei, had failed to gather majority support at earlier party reunions. He supported Băsescu's message to the PDL, which counseled the party to find itself a candidate (and successor to Băsescu) on par with Ronald Reagan
or Margaret Thatcher
, and reiterated the call for politicians "of conviction". The reformist group obtained the revision of charters which prevented junior members from running in party elections, but their main motion on party policies was defeated by the PDL's Berceanu-Blaga "old guard".
Additionally, Voinescu expressed disapproval for some Boc cabinet policies which he sees as deviating from the PDL's right-wing credentials, including the "pensioners' basket" welfare program, and publicly called for a radical change of the Romanian Constitution
, deeming it "profoundly flawed" for what he interprets as a chronic failure to uphold the separation of powers
. His endorsement of a project to award the Romanian Orthodox Church
a say in the allocation of welfare programs generated criticism among secularist
analysts, who commented that it bastardized the concept of social justice
and effectively reduced the separation of church and state
, or that it offered the Church an inflated role in politics and civil society.
A parallel dispute ensued, between Voinescu and Preda: Voinescu is a noted critic of party-list proportional representation
and endorses first-past-the-post voting; in contrast, Preda dismisses his colleague's project as "populist
mythology", arguing that further election reform would do little to address the realities of political corruption
. The two figures were opposed by their attitudes on Boc, when Preda, unlike Macovei and Voinescu, chose not to endorse Boc's candidature for a new term as PDL leader. There was also a disagreement between Voinescu and President Băsescu in matters of world politics, after the latter went on record with a claim that Romania's future development depended on a hypothetical United States of Europe
federation. Tracing the mixed results of Federal Europe concepts through history, Voinescu replied: "My personal opinion is that this goal is as beautiful as it is unreachable." Voinescu took a middle ground in the disputes between Băsescu and Dilemas Andrei Pleşu, arguing that the President's criticism of his mentor contained "uninspired metaphors"—in reaction, anti-Băsescu writer Bedros Horasangian asked: "How is it that Sever Voinescu [...] can still face up to Andrei Pleşu?"
Voinescu later returned with more explicit remarks, clarifying that the Movement was a sound project, which could help coagulate the Romanian right. He was also directing criticism toward the PDL's partner in government, the nominally left-wing National Union for the Progress of Romania
, arguing that it could not expect to be included in the emerging party: "rest assured, nobody asked you in." In public statements, Voinescu ridiculed the political aspirations of OTV owner Dan Diaconescu and his own People's Party
, viewing them as demagogic; he rejected suggestions of an alliance between Diaconescu and the PDL. When Lăzăroiu and Mihail Neamţu launched their own platform, Noua Republică, Voinescu admitted that it could win over a sizable portion of the PDL electorate.
In October 2011, Voinescu was head of the Romanian delegation at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
meeting, held in Bucharest. In this capacity, he signed the protocol which gave Romanian support for Georgia
's Euro-Atlantic integration, and expressed the official viewpoint that Russia had no reason to fear the national missile defense
developed in Eastern Europe.
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 journalist, political analyst, diplomat and right-wing politician. A Foreign Affairs Ministry figure during the mid-1990s, he was later a Consul General of Romania in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Voinescu became known as a columnist for 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...
weekly and Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...
daily, and worked for the Institute for Public Policies, a political think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
. As pundit, Voinescu supports conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
ideas, and criticizes left-wing and welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
solutions as applied to his country.
Often described as a member of the intellectual faction close to 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...
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...
, Voinescu was characterized by political opponents as a person lacking in independence, a verdict which, in 2007, cost him advancement in the diplomatic service. He subsequently joined the 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...
(PDL), running in the 2008 legislative 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...
and earning a deputy
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...
seat for Ploieşti
Ploiesti
Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....
. From April 2009 to February 2011, he was Secretary of the Deputies' Chamber.
During his time in office, Sever Voinescu became known as a supporter of inner-party reform and pressed for the PDL's transformation into a conservative group, although he is still noted for taking sides against stronger critics of the party line. He also regularly spoke out against media opponents of Băsescu and the PDL, accusing part of the press of being politically controlled by the opposition parties. Voinescu was subsequently involved in several political controversies, including claims that he has used his Chamber position to push for electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
.
Early life and career
Born in Ploieşti, Sever Voinescu stated having grown up in a public housingPublic housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
area, and being a "child of the tower block
Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building...
". Baptized Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
, and identifying himself with liberal Orthodoxy, he grew up into a supporter of the social and political involvement of religious individuals, and recommends tolerance between believers and non-believers. Voinescu graduated from the Pedagogic High School's primary school, the Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza was a Moldavian-born Romanian politician who ruled as the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia between 1859 and 1866.-Early life:...
High School's gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
, and the Mihai Viteazul National College, while training in parallel with an amateur basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team.
A graduate of the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
Faculty of Law in 1992, he was a practicing lawyer until 1996. Initially, Voinescu was a trainee lawyer in his native city, but later joined a female colleague in opening a law firm, based 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....
. In parallel, he became noted for his cultural and political column in Dilema Veche (known then as just Dilema). His debut, Voinescu recalls, occurred in 1994, and resulted in his "addiction" to writing. According to a presentation for Înapoi la argument, the Romanian Television
Romanian television
Romanian television may refer to:* Communications media in Romania* Televiziunea Română, TVR, the national television network* List of Romanian language television channels...
talk show of philosopher Horia-Roman Patapievici
Horia-Roman Patapievici
Horia-Roman Patapievici is a Romanian physicist and essayist who currently serves as the head of the Romanian Cultural Institute. Between 2000 and 2005, he was a member of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, supporting more openness regarding the files of the...
: "Sever Voinescu is one of the distinct voices in Romanian cultural journalism. His writing is in fact a moral attitude from a well-defined perspective, with no conjectural ambiguities." In the political climate 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...
, Voinescu also became active on the public scene, originally as a member of the 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...
platform known as Group for Social Dialogue
Group for Social Dialogue
The Group for Social Dialogue is a Romanian non-governmental organization whose stated mission is to protect and promote democracy, human rights and civil liberties...
(a membership which, in 2008, he listed as one of the "tidbits in my biography that I take pride in").
Voinescu joined the Bucharest bar association
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
in 1994. In 1995-1997, he was Assistant Professor for the Academy of Economic Studies (ASE) Law Faculty. He had previously given seminar
Seminar
Seminar is, generally, a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some particular subject, in which everyone present is...
-level classes at the ASE and several private universities. For a while in 1997, some months after the 1996 legislative election
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...
, which were won by the right-wing 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....
(CDR), he was Counselor to the General Secretariat of the 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:...
government, answering to Remus Opriş
Remus Opris
Remus Opriş is a Romanian politician and psychiatrist, a prominent member of the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party and former Minister-Delegate for Local Administration in the 1996-1998 Victor Ciorbea cabinet...
. He referred to this point in his career as "an interesting turn", and recounts that the CDR victory had made him "enthusiastic". From 1998 to 2000, during the CDR premierships
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...
of Radu Vasile
Radu Vasile
Radu Vasile is a Romanian politician, historian and poet.-Education and Professional Activity:*1967 - Graduate, with exceptional results, of the Faculty of History - University of Bucharest...
and Mugur Isărescu
Mugur Isarescu
Mugur Isărescu is the Governor of the National Bank of Romania. From 22 December 1999 to 28 November 2000 he served as Prime Minister. He is a member of the Romanian Academy....
, Voinescu served as General Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under Ministers Andrei Pleşu
Andrei Plesu
Andrei Gabriel Pleşu is a Romanian philosopher, essayist, journalist, literary and art critic, and politician.- Biography :Born in Bucharest, the son of Radu Pleşu, a surgeon and Zoe Pleşu , he spent much of his early youth in the country side...
and Petre Roman
Petre Roman
Petre Roman is a Romanian politician and a former Prime Minister of Romania. He served from 1989 to 1991, when his government was overthrown by the intervention of the miners led by Miron Cozma. Roman is a member of the Club of Madrid, grouping 66 democratic former heads of state and government...
. Voinescu recounts that he accepted the request because it had been voiced by Dilema Veche editor Pleşu, a man whom he calls his "mentor".
Between 2000 and 2003, he was assigned the diplomatic office in Chicago, returning to lead the Institute for Public Policies' Foreign Policies and International Relations Program. He had been relieved from diplomatic office by the new 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...
executive of Adrian Năstase
Adrian Nastase
Adrian Năstase is a Romanian politician who was the Prime Minister of Romania from December 2000 to December 2004.He competed as the Social Democratic Party candidate in the 2004 presidential election, but was defeated by centre-right Justice and Truth Alliance candidate Traian Băsescu.He was...
, and reflects back on the period: "I left the diplomatic career without a scandal and without regrets." During the following period, Sever Voinescu began contributing a political column to Cotidianul. He also became noted a supporter of America's War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
, including the Second Iraq War. These sentiments were echoed in his columns for Dilema, and criticized from a Francophile
Francophile
Is a person with a positive predisposition or interest toward the government, culture, history, or people of France. This could include France itself and its history, the French language, French cuisine, literature, etc...
position by academic Roxana Ologeanu. Voinescu's articles covered a wide range of subjects, among which reviewers highlight his interventions on the topic of Romanian economy
Economy of Romania
Romania has a developing, upper-middle income market economy, the 11th largest in the European Union by total nominal GDP and the 8th largest based on purchasing power parity...
, his posthumous homage to American literary theorist Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
, and his defense of Chalcedonian Christianity against neo-Gnosticism
Gnosticism in modern times
Gnosticism includes a variety of religious movements, mostly Christian in nature, in the ancient Hellenistic society around the Mediterranean. Although origins are disputed, the period of activity for most of these movements flourished from approximately the time of the founding of Christianity...
.
Support for President Băsescu and related controversy
Voinescu established himself on the political scene after the 2004 legislativeRomanian 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...
and presidential
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...
elections, when the Social Democrats were defeated by the Justice and Truth coalition (DA), which also successfully endorsed Băsescu as President. As DA split into the Democratic Party (later PDL) and the National Liberals
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...
, the latter of which unsuccessfully endorsed the anti-Băsescu impeachment referendum of 2007
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...
, Voinescu expressed his support for the president. At that time, he joined 49 other intellectuals in signing an open letter
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
addressed to the National Liberal Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
Calin Popescu-Tariceanu
Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu is a Romanian politician. He was the Prime Minister of Romania between 29 December 2004 and 22 December 2008...
government, questioning its policies and supporting those of the president. Among the other signatories were Patapievici, Adriana Babeţi, Hannelore Baier, Mircea Cărtărescu
Mircea Cartarescu
Mircea Cărtărescu is a Romanian poet, novelist and essayist.Born in Bucharest, he graduated from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters, Department of Romanian Language And Literature, in 1980. Between 1980 and 1989 he worked as a Romanian language teacher, then he worked at the Writers'...
, Magda Cârneci, Ruxandra Cesereanu
Ruxandra Cesereanu
Ruxandra-Mihaela Cesereanu or Ruxandra-Mihaela Braga is a Romanian poet, essayist, short story writer, novelist and literary critic...
, Livius Ciocârlie, Andrei Cornea, Sabina Fati, Florin Gabrea, Sorin Ilieşiu, 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....
, Mircea Mihăieş, Dan C. Mihăilescu, Virgil Nemoianu
Virgil Nemoianu
Virgil Nemoianu is a Romanian-American essayist, literary critic, and philosopher of culture. He is generally described as a specialist in “comparative literature” but this is a somewhat limiting label, only partially covering the wider range of his activities and accomplishments...
, Andrei Oişteanu
Andrei Oisteanu
Andrei Oişteanu is a Romanian historian of religions and mentalities, ethnologist, cultural anthropologist, literary critic and novelist. Specialized in the history of religions and mentalities, he is also noted for his investigation of rituals and magic and his work in Jewish studies and the...
, Dan Perjovschi
Dan Perjovschi
Dan Perjovschi is an artist, writer and cartoonist born in 1961 in Sibiu, Romania. Perjovschi has over the past decade created drawings in museum spaces, most recently in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in which he created the drawing during business hours for patrons to see. The drawings...
, Andrei Pippidi, Şerban Rădulescu-Zoner, Victor Rebengiuc
Victor Rebengiuc
Victor Rebengiuc is an award-winning Romanian film and stage actor, also known as a civil society activist. Since 1957, he has been a member of the Bulandra Theater company, acting in more than 200 roles on that stage alone...
, Dan Tapalagă, Vladimir Tismăneanu
Vladimir Tismaneanu
Vladimir Tismăneanu is a Romanian and American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park...
, Florin Ţurcanu, Traian Ungureanu and Alexandru Zub
Alexandru Zub
Alexandru Zub is a Romanian historian, biographer, essayist, political activist and academic. A former Professor at the University of Iaşi, noted for his contribution to the study of cultural history and Romanian history, he is currently head of the A. D. Xenopol Institute of History and Archeology...
.
Just days before the referendum was carried by the pro-Băsescu option, the president endorsed Sever Voinescu for the office of Romanian Ambassador to the United States. This was coupled with his proposal to have journalist Traian Ungureanu appointed for the similar office in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The proposals were presented to the 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...
's Foreign Policy Committee, where Voinescu was rejected with 16 votes to 7. On the occasion, Social Democratic senator and Committee President 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...
, himself a former Ambassador to Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, claimed that Voinescu's support for Băsescu made him a partisan option, and therefore unsuited for the office. In a November 2008 interview with 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...
, Voinescu provided his own take on the event, commenting that the reason presented by the Committee was "purely political", and arguing that: "In that [pre-referendum] context they would have outvoted God himself, had he been supported by Băsescu. I had come forth with a serious program, one I intended to discuss over with the Committee. I was suggesting a number of alternatives as a framework for our future relationship with the USA, but the Committee members were rather more interested in evaluating my activities as a journalist. They couldn't care less about my diplomatic program, but they were heartbroken over what I had published as a political commentator." According to România Liberă
România Libera
România Liberă is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 40,000....
newspaper, Voinescu was specifically rejected for the "colums favorable to President Băsescu that he had published in the press."
While the 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...
gave Băsescu the power of decision in the matter, his temporary loss of office and replacement with Nicolae Văcăroiu
Nicolae Vacaroiu
Nicolae Văcăroiu is a Romanian politician, member of the Social Democratic Party, who served as Prime Minister between 1992 and 1996. Before the 1989 Revolution he worked at the Committee for State Planning, together with Theodor Stolojan....
meant that Voinescu's name was no longer an option. In summer 2007, the new Minister, Adrian Cioroianu
Adrian Cioroianu
Adrian Mihai Cioroianu is a Romanian historian, politician, journalist, and essayist. A lecturer for the History Department at the University of Bucharest, he is the author of several books dealing with Romanian history...
, was engaged in a lengthy debate with reconfirmed President Băsescu, during which time no new ambassadors were appointed in several world capitals.
Political candidature
On July 23, 2008, Voinescu published his final Cotidianul column, announcing that he had agreed to run as a PDL candidate for the Chamber of DeputiesChamber 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...
in his native Prahova County
Prahova County
Prahova is a county of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploieşti.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 829,945 and the population density was 176/km². It is Romania's most populated county, having a population density double than the country's mean...
. This was in view of the 2008 legislative 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 in Romania to be based on 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...
and 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...
s. In that article, Voinescu stated: "I have decided to run [...] in my native city of Ploieşti. The college comprises the neighborhood where I was born, grew up, lived through the first ages of youth and here my parents still live." Commenting on his motivation, Voinescu also wrote: "our politicians are trapped in moral and intellectual darkness which reaches the level of national catastrophe. I enter the arena because I want to bring clarity within the nebula."
In a the 2008 interview with Evenimentul Zilei, he elaborated: "There are moments in life when one wants to see if one is capable of doing what he requires others to do." At the same time, he clarified that his choice to rally with the PDL was motivated by the party representing "the authentic Right", and by the National Liberals experiencing "a temporary drift", arguing that he found a post-electoral alliance with the Social Democrats "impossible [and] stinking", whereas the National Liberal Party had the "moral obligation" of joining the PDL in a new coalition. He also pointed out that, although a member of a faction politically allied with Băsescu, he did not intend to placate the latter in his public statements, and criticized his party for resorting to "suspicious borrowings [and] bizarre additions" in order to meet the necessary number of candidates. Believed by Evenimentul Zilei to be the natural choice for a PDL Foreign Minister, he spoke in favor of continuing a close cooperation with the United States, and justified Romania's traditional qualms toward 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...
. After joining the party, Voinescu became an Administrative Board member for its think tank, the Institute for People Studies.
The candidature sparked negative comments from Jurnalul Naţional
Jurnalul National
Jurnalul Naţional is a Romanian newspaper, part of the Intact media group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular TV station Antena 1....
columnist Victor Ciutacu
Victor Ciutacu
Victor Ciutacu is a Romanian journalist, editor in chief at the daily newspaper Jurnalul Naţional, and the host of the TV show Vorbe grele broadcast on Antena 3.-External links:...
, who paralleled it with news that journalists Ungureanu and Cătălin Avramescu were also planning to run in elections as PDL affiliates. Although describing Voinescu as "a coherent journalist", Ciutacu alleged that all three were basing their actions on their support for Băsescu, and that they were thus comparable to lăutari
Lautari
The Romanian word Lăutar denotes a class of traditional musicians. Most often, and by tradition, Lăutari are members of a professional clan of Romani musicians , also called Ţigani lăutari. The term is derived from Lăută the name of a string instrument...
singers, "who, depending on how good their showmanship is, are rewarded by the man sitting at the head of the table." In contrast, journalists at Gândul
Gândul
Gândul is a Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was founded in May 2005 by Mircea Dinescu, who used to write a daily editorial called "Vorba lu' Dinescu", and Cristian Tudor Popescu, who was also the editor-in-chief until January 2008. Its initial circulation was about 52,000...
concluded that both Voinescu and Avramescu were electoral assets coveted by PDL leader 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...
, who, like other public figures from non-politicized areas, could bring help the party earn extra votes in the post-party-list
Party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...
era.
Voinescu won the seat in the 10th Electoral College for Prahova County. România Liberă also noted that his constituency was already favorable to the PDL. All other seats in Ploieşti were claimed by PDL members—Andrei Sava and Roberta Alma Anastase
Roberta Alma Anastase
Roberta Alma Anastase is a Romanian politician and the first female Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania since 19 December 2008....
as the other two deputies, Gabriel Sandu
Gabriel Sandu
Gabriel Sandu is a Romanian economist and politician. A member of the Democratic Liberal Party , he was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Brăila County from 2004 to 2008...
as senator. In a January 2009 interview with Academia Caţavencu
Academia Catavencu
Academia Caţavencu is a Romanian satirical magazine founded in 1991 and made famous by its investigative journalism. Academia Caţavencu also owns Radio Guerrilla , an FM radio station with national coverage ; Tabu, a women's magazine, Superbebe, a magazine for new parents, Aventuri la pescuit, a...
s Eugen Istodor, Voinescu stated his dissatisfaction with the post-election Emil Boc cabinet, founded around a PDL-PSD alliance at the end of failed negotiations between the PDL and the National Liberals. He argued: "I am not part of any decision structure within the PDL, so there was no reason for me to be asked [what I though about the PSD alliance]. [...] Within the PDL, there is a majority sentiment that it was the best of rationally possible solutions. The party is now in a Panglossian moment. But there also exists a lucid minority which continues to believe that it was not at all the best best of rationally possible solutions." He added: "For my case, of what was said during the campaign, as well as from things before, nothing has changed. I have no reason to believe that the PSD is better now than when it was impeaching the president. [...] The new PSD elite is different from the old one only in the sense that it is more flexible, more versatile, more chameleonic."
Chamber Secretary and Băsescu's spokesman
Voinescu was confirmed Chamber Secretary in April 2009, after a prolonged dispute within the coalition: although his candidature had been approved on principle by both coalition partners, several PSD and PDL parliamentarians refused to vote in favor during consecutive sessions. The vote was ultimately carried by 154 to 106. In October of the same year, Voinescu also became spokesman for Traian Băsescu's second-term presidential campaignRomanian presidential election, 2009
The first round of 2009 Romanian presidential elections was held in Romania on 22 November and a run-off round between Traian Băsescu and Mircea Geoană was held on 6 December 2009. Although most exit polls favored Geoană in the runoff, the authorities declared Băsescu the narrow victor with 50.33%...
. He was cited in the press stating: "I accepted this position for at least two reasons, the first being that I am a supporter of Traian Băsescu as a political project and that as both a politician and a citizen I wish to apply all my forces so that Traian Băsescu will win in these elections". In late November, during the two rounds of voting, Voinescu presented the official PDL viewpoint on the publicized video sample which seemed to show Băsescu punching a child. Voinescu's suggested that the images had been faked by the PDL's political rivals and, in reference to the press' reaction, argued: "the electoral campaign has fully entered its most despicable stage. Instead of debates between the candidates and letting the citizens decide, in the absence of any other influences, who should be the one to lead the country for the next five years, we have come to discuss a dubious, murky film, promoted on the screens of [media] mogul television stations with an obvious electioneering purpose." Following Băsescu's eventual reelection, Voinescu also subjected to public ridicule the claims of various PSD members that their candidate, 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...
, had been a victim of negative parapsychological
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
techniques, such as "energy attacks" and "violet flame" power.
In January, Voinescu had supported the initiative of fellow junior PDL-ists Cristian Preda
Cristian Preda
Cristian Preda is a Romanian political science professor, and author of several books in this field. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament, representing Romania.-Education and academic career:...
and 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...
to reform the PDL from within by imposing new recruitment and internal promotion policies, and also gave backing to Sorin Frunzăverde
Sorin Frunzaverde
Sorin Frunzăverde is a Romanian politician, president of the Caras-Severin County Council, former Member of the European Parliament....
's suggestion of reconstituting the PDL into a "People's Party
People's Party
The People's Party, Peoples Party, or Popular Party, is any of several political parties claiming to speak for the people.People's Parties in various countries run the gamut from left to right...
". Their collective criticism of the Boc leadership was responded to by the Premier, who stated that both Preda and Voinescu needed to attend more party conferences and, through "clarification", come to terms with the party line. The verdict was reviewed negatively by political scientist Aurelian Giugăl, a critic of the Boc cabinet, who contrasted Boc's statement with the PDL having just welcomed into its ranks the "pathetic" nonconformist Honorius Prigoană, and concluded that "the presidential party" was only mimicking institutional reform.
In early 2010, Voinescu was involved in a publicized polemic with his PDL colleague Cristian Preda, regarding the party's doctrines and the measure of involvement on the part of President Băsescu. The debate was sparked in February by Voinescu's own comments, according to which the PDL needed to emphasize its support for Băsescu's political agenda and, as a consequence, adopt "a larger measure of Băsescianism". Preda reacted against the statement on his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, where the wording used by Voinescu was referred to as "an unfortunate choice". Preda noted that he partly shared Voinescu's apprehension of "some PDL practices". He argued instead that there existed an inner-party struggle between old and new PDL members, in which the former category, "claiming lineage precisely from Traian Băsescu", could block the newer members out of power. Voinescu, who stated his dissatisfaction at being attacked on Preda's blog, noted: "I don't know why Cristian Preda wishes at all costs for us to quarrel in public. I have been following his quest for media glory for a while now and I'm bemused. If he has something to tell me, he knows where to find me." Discussing the core of Preda's objection, he added: "I understand that he is annoyed by the political adjectivization
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
of the president's name [as Băsescianism]. That's his business. From what I found out, he says that there's now a need for answers to social issues and not invented words. I cannot believe that a phrase this trite, a phrase so much like a putrid slogan, could have been written down by Cristian Preda."
In reply, Preda noted "regretting" that Voinescu "has joined the team [of PDL members] who are intimated by public dialogue within the new media" (a group he identified with PDL activist Ioan Oltean). However, in an October interview with Istodor, Preda suggested that he still identified his own political partisanship with "the triad" of Voinescu, Macovei and Teodor Baconschi
Teodor Baconschi
Teodor Baconschi , is a Romanian politician. He is the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania since December 2009.-Early years:Baconschi was born in Bucharest to the poet Anatol E. Baconsky and his wife Clara...
within a "collective identity" of PDL reformists, noting that he rejected the opposition parties as merely "preservers of the welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
."
By then, Voinescu had also joined those PDL politicians who publicly asked for the new Boc executive (formed by the PDL and the Hungarian Democratic Union
Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania
The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, is the main political organisation representing the ethnic Hungarians of Romania....
, with the PSD in opposition) to resign and be replaced with a "more flexible" variant, in line with the core electorate's wishes. During summer 2010, when Boc survived a motion of no confidence
Motion of no confidence
A motion of no confidence is a parliamentary motion whose passing would demonstrate to the head of state that the elected parliament no longer has confidence in the appointed government.-Overview:Typically, when a parliament passes a vote of no...
initiated by the PSD, Voinescu expressed a reserved position on the political consequences. Speaking at the time for B1 TV
B1 TV
B1 TV is a Romanian television channel, which started broadcasting on December 14, 2001.-External links:*...
, he called the referred to the PSD's motion as "a poorly written lampoon", but warned that a cabinet reshuffle
Cabinet shuffle
In the parliamentary system a cabinet shuffle or reshuffle is an informal term for an event that occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet....
was in order. In September of that year, Voinescu and Elena Udrea
Elena Udrea
Elena Gabriela Udrea is a Romanian politician. A member of the Democratic Liberal Party , she has been a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Bucharest since 2008...
were among those PDL parliamentarians who voted in favor of deposing the Boc cabinet, while others considered a reshuffling option. Voinescu's rationale was that the government policies had managed to erode grassroots support for the PDL, and the defeat of his option was reported by observers as a failure of the PDL's reform-minded wing.
Anastase scandal and conflict with Vântu
In September 2010, Sever Voinescu became involved in a political controversy, centered on Chamber President Roberta Alma AnastaseRoberta Alma Anastase
Roberta Alma Anastase is a Romanian politician and the first female Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania since 19 December 2008....
. The scandal formed part of a national debate on the government-proposed measures to counter the post-2007 economic slump and public spending with right-wing policies, against the opposition-backed social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
system. According to media and opposition reports, during the prolonged Chamber vote on the revised Law on Pensions, after opposition representatives had chosen to leave the hall in protest and the voting machine
Voting machine
Voting machines are the total combination of mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic equipment , that is used to define ballots; to cast and count votes; to report or display election results; and to maintain and produce any audit trail information...
went out of order, Anastase over-counted the number of parliamentarians present in the hall, and PDL legislation was passed against consensus. As a result, the Social Democrats filed a legal complaint, citing malfeasance in office
Malfeasance in office
Malfeasance in office, or official misconduct, is the commission of an unlawful act, done in an official capacity, which affects the performance of official duties. Malfeasance in office is often grounds for a for cause removal of an elected official by statute or recall election.An exact...
, electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
and forgery
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
.
Speaking for his party, PSD deputy Radu Moldovan alleged that the two Chamber leaders had implicitly "admitted" the deed they stood accused of, further accusing them of having displayed "illegal and criminal behavior against 6 million [old age pensioners]", and calling for the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. In reply, PDL politicians expressed support for both figures, and argued that there was no proof of illegality in their actions. Early on, PDL Chamber group leader Mircea Toader stated that the chaotic procedures and the presence of unruly deputies around the rostrum meant that CCTV footage of the procedure was inconclusive. Cristian Preda spoke of the voting inaccuracies as "an error" on the part of Anastase and Voinescu, claiming that the illegal but allegedly commonplace absentee ballot
Absentee ballot
An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station. Numerous methods have been devised to facilitate this...
had rendered unreliable all Chamber attendance reports. In a November interview with Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale was created in 1975 as part of Radio France by the Government of France, and replaced the Poste Colonial , Paris Mondial , Radio Paris , RTF Radio Paris and ORTF Radio Paris...
, Preda elaborated that the party as a whole needed to apologize for the "embarrassing" incident, and, while noting that Anastase's removal was not an option, asked Voinescu to present a formal explanation. The scandal reverberated at Dilema Veche, when poet Şerban Foarţă
Şerban Foarţă
Şerban Foarţă is a contemporary Romanian writer.-Works:* Texte pentru Phoenix , Litera Publishing House, Bucharest, 1976 * Simpleroze , Facla Publishing House, Timişoara, 1978* Şalul, eşarpele Isadorei/Şalul e şarpele...
announced that he ceased contributing, not wishing for his name to feature alongside that of Voinescu, "an unfrequentable character".
During October 2010, Voinescu resumed his political conflict with the anti-Băsescu media outlets: Dan Voiculescu
Dan Voiculescu
Dan Voiculescu is a Romanian politician and former business man. He is the Vicepresident of the Romanian Senate and founding president of the Conservative Party in Romania. ....
's Intact Media Group and Sorin Ovidiu Vântu
Sorin Ovidiu Vântu
Sorin Ovidiu Vântu is a Romanian businessman and owner of the Realitatea-Caţavencu media company. In 2008 he was considered the 5th richest man in Romania with an estimated net worth between 800 and 850 million euros....
's Realitatea-Caţavencu
Realitatea-Catavencu
The Realitatea-Caţavencu trust is a Romanian group of media companies, owned by Sorin-Ovidiu Vântu . It was founded when Vântu bought the Caţavencu media group, who, as they declared, at that time it was unable do develop further by itself...
. In a public statement, the deputy accused both "moguls" of intending to "rob the public treasury" with backing from the PSD, and of staging an intense "defamation campaign" against President Băsescu, who would not assist them in deferring formal investigations into their businesses. As a result, Sorin Ovidiu Vântu announced that he was going to file a civil suit against Voinescu, Premier Boc and Elena Udrea, noting that he was not going to tolerate any further accusations that he himself was organizing a putsch (as once stated by Udrea). Vântu reportedly considered requesting 250,000 euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
in damages from Voinescu, who had qualified Vântu's 1990s Gelsor-Fondul Naţional de Investiţii investment scheme as a "mega-confidence trick" and had alleged that Vântu made a profit withdrawing his assets before the scheme crashed.
At the time, Voinescu made controversial live appearances on another private network, Oglinda Television (OTV), which critics, including Voinescu himself, regard as a low-brow enterprise in the realm of tabloid media
Tabloid television
Tabloid television, also known as Teletabloid, is a form of tabloid journalism. Tabloid television newscasts usually incorporate flashy graphics and sensationalized stories.Often, there is a heavy emphasis on crime, stories with good video, and celebrity news...
. In a Dilema Veche piece, Voinescu himself described the station as usually exploring "the shady and humid underground" of human expectations; he implied that everyone watches OTV, but that only some will admit it. Reacting to this characterization, Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...
editor Carmen Muşat accused Voinescu of using a questionable media resource to increase Băsescu's exposure, against his own beliefs. TV critic and Dilema colleague Cezar Paul-Bădescu, who describes OTV as "a station specializing in cadavers and characters on the fringe of humanity", declared himself puzzled by Voinescu's rationale, but noted: "maybe [his reasons are] the same ones that prompted president Băsescu to conclude, back in the day, that said channel was frequentable". Other cultural magazines also reacted negatively to Voinescu's explanation of OTV's secret fan base: 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...
called his analysis "useless and dangerous", while Luceafărul took offense from the implication "that we are all headless beings with morbid inclinations".
In February 2011, Voinescu withdrew from the post of Chamber Secretary, as it was due to fall to a deputy of the Romanian ethnic minorities parties
Romanian ethnic minorities parties
The Romanian Constitution , under the contitions imposed by the Electoral Law, reserves a seat in the Chamber of Deputies for the party and cultural association of each ethnic minority in Romania...
in the ensuing legislative session. In July, the High Court of Cassation and Justice
High Court of Cassation and Justice
The High Court of Cassation and Justice is Romania's supreme court, and the court of last resort. It is the equivalent of France's Cour de cassation and serves a similar function to other courts of cassation around the world...
ruled that prosecution in the Voinescu-Anastase case was unwarranted, since the contestants had not contested the vote through parliamentary procedure, as described by Chamber's internal regulations.
Conservative pundit
By 2008, Voinescu's Dilema Veche column was giving significant coverage to American politicsPolitics of the United States
The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...
, and were noted as a countercritique of Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
takes on the world crisis, with suggestions that the memory of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
as a "criminal utopia" needed to be preserved in unadulterated fashion, for the benefit of future generations. In 2009, he contributed to a Humanitas
Humanitas publishing house
Humanitas is an independent Romanian publishing house, founded on February 1, 1990 in Bucharest by the philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu...
homage volume for Andrei Pleşu
Andrei Plesu
Andrei Gabriel Pleşu is a Romanian philosopher, essayist, journalist, literary and art critic, and politician.- Biography :Born in Bucharest, the son of Radu Pleşu, a surgeon and Zoe Pleşu , he spent much of his early youth in the country side...
, titled O filozofie a intervalului ("A Philosophy of the Interval"). Invited by Vladimir Tismăneanu
Vladimir Tismaneanu
Vladimir Tismăneanu is a Romanian and American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park...
, he was also a contributor to Verso review. His political essay was later included in the anthology Anatomia resentimentului ("The Anatomy of Resentment", Editura Curtea Veche
Editura Curtea Veche
Editura Curtea Veche is a Romanian publishing house with a tradition in editing works of Romanian literature. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Curtea Veche started editing more foreign books, such as BBC reports or The Complete Idiot's Guide to....-External links:...
, 2010).
The renewed contributions in these fields received criticism from various cultural and political reviewers. His severity in reacting to news that Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
was considering a détente
Détente
Détente is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. The term is often used in reference to the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War...
with the Taliban was covered, with irony, by Luceafărul magazine. It noted: "our specialists in the headbutting industry [...] have for a main mental preoccupation the handing of unneeded advice and moral slaps to the world's greatest leaders." In commentary he posted on the Voxpublica platform, Voinescu illustrated his defense of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
with suggestions that multinational corporation
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
s were still hiring, recommending Romanians to seek retraining
Retraining
Vocational rehabilitation or retraining is the process of learning a new skill or trade, often in response to a change in the economic environment. Generally it reflects changes in profession rather than an "upward" movement in the same field....
; these views were criticized as specious and uncompassionate by essayist Liviu Ornea, who suggested that Voinescu's radicalism was even harming the PDL. Voinescu's activity as panelist was touched by another kind of controversy: in August 2010, Voinescu was described in the press as a "plagiarist
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
", for a Dilema article on the Yemeni crackdown
Yemeni al-Qaeda crackdown
The Yemeni al-Qaeda crackdown refers to military operations by the Yemeni government and the United States government against al Qaeda and related targets in Yemen as part of the Global War on Terror. The crackdown began in 2001 and escalated on January 14, 2010 when Yemen declared open war on al...
, which, it was argued, closely resembled a New York Times editorial; Voinescu defended his piece as a metanarrative
Metanarrative
A metanarrative , in critical theory and particularly postmodernism, is an abstract idea that is thought to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge. According to John Stephens, it "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge...
. One of Voinescu's parables on the crisis issue was ridiculed by Luceafărul, who noted that it made the same point as an earlier contribution by Vintilă Mihăilescu
Vintila Mihailescu
Vintilă Mihăilescu is a leading Romanian cultural anthropologist, and a Professor at the University of Bucharest....
, and concluded that Voinescu was no longer in the habit of actually reading Dilema Veche.
In summer 2011, with fellow pundits Valeriu Stoica
Valeriu Stoica
Valeriu Stoica is a Romanian politician and academic. A professor of civil law at the University of Bucharest, he became a member of the National Liberal Party in 1990, and was first vice-president of the party between 1997 and 2001 and president between 2001 and 2002...
and Cătălin Avramescu, Sever Voinescu attended the conference tour on "Issues of the Romanian Right", jointly organized by the PDL's Institute for People's Studies and the Hanns Seidel Foundation. During one such event in Focşani
Focsani
Focşani is the capital city of Vrancea County in Romania on the shores the Milcov river, in the historical region of Moldavia. It has a population of 101,854.-Geography:...
, he and Stoica debated policy: Stoica expressed the belief that PDL, a "cocktail" of liberalism
Liberalism and radicalism in Romania
This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...
, conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
and Christian democracy
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
, needed to stand united behind Boc's economic measures; contrarily, Voinescu assessed that cabinet ministers less committed to laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
needed to be discarded. Voinescu also had a debate with senator and senior PDL member Radu F. Alexandru. A critic of Băsescu's continued involvement with the PDL, Alexandru spoke out against the reformists' alleged practice of venting out complaints through mass media, but not at party conferences.
Shortly after, responding to criticism of Boc's governing practice, Băsescu publicized a reaction to inner PDL conflicts which nominated Voinescu and Preda as factors of disturbance: "Had I been the involved, the PDL would have been more adroit in its political action. There would have been no PDL politician not to follow the golden rule. We would be discussing these issues on the inside and, once something were set, we would all be abiding by it. No matter if they're named Preda, Sever Voinescu [or] Radu F. Alexandru, they would not be in the party had I been the one running it. Such things display the cowardice of these people. It's easy to issue a statement on TV and then grow in importance". Băsescu added that, instead of focusing on Boc, Voinescu should have spoken out against the "BVB triad" of PDL-ists who resist a change of platform: Radu Berceanu
Radu Berceanu
Radu Mircea Berceanu is a Romanian engineer and politician. A member of the Democratic Liberal Party , he was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Dolj County from 1990 to 2004, and has sat in the Romanian Senate since 2004 , representing the same county...
, Adriean Videanu
Adriean Videanu
Adriean Videanu is a businessman and former mayor of Bucharest, Romania. He is also a vice president of the Democratic Liberal Party of Romania, which is led by Emil Boc and the Minister of Economy in the Boc Cabinet, from 22 December 2008.A businessman in the marble and granite industry, Videanu...
and Vasile Blaga
Vasile Blaga
Vasile Blaga is a Romanian politician and the current Speaker of the Upper Chamber of the Romanian Parliament, the Senate, and a former Minister of Regional Development and Housing and twice former Minister of Administration and Internal Affairs....
. In reply, Voinescu noted that the statement had troubled him, and that he even gave thought to resigning from the PDL.
Writing in a guest editorial for 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....
in September of that year, Voinescu referred to the need for a conservative pole to emerge in modern Romanian politics. His text argues: "In today's Romania, it is not at all hard to be a liberal or a socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
. What's hard is being a conservative. On another level, in today's Romania it is not at all hard to be an egotist, nor to cement yourself, forevermore, into the condition of a socially-assisted person. What's hard is to be a man of common sense, capable of balancing his own interest against that of others, after taking charge of his own destiny." According to Voinescu, there is an untapped electorate that consistently votes against left-wing policies, but is increasingly disenchanted with the effects of right-wing governance, and tacitly supporting any conservative, conviction politics
Conviction politics
Conviction politics refers to the practice of campaigning based on a politicians' own fundamental values or ideas, rather than attempting to represent an existing consensus or simply take positions that are popular in polls....
, "Thatcherite
Thatcherism
Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
" solution to Romania's woes. He suggested that its recovery by the PDL would be that party's "great chance". Voinescu also argued that old-school Romanian conservatism had been hijacked in the 1990s by Dan Voiculescu's eponymous party
Conservative Party (Romania)
The Conservative Party of Romania is a political party formed in 1991, after the fall of Communism, under the name of the Romanian Humanist Party . From 2005 until December 3, 2006, the party was a junior member of the ruling coalition...
: "Can one imagine a more scandalous usurpation?"
2011 vote on PDL ideology
Beginning in spring 2011, Voinescu was again involved with the PDL's inner reform project, alongside Macovei and Preda, supporting the motion presented to the PDL's May Congress with the aim of regaining electoral support and public trust before the 2012 electionRomanian legislative election, 2012
Legislative elections will be held in Romania on 30 November 2012....
. He sketched out and advanced a proposal for a PDL Code of Conduct, which is supposed to regulate the party's response to criminal charges brought up against its politicians (past cases include Monica Iacob Ridzi or Dan Păsat), in what he described as an effort to increase transparency. On the occasion, Voinescu expressed discontent that the document, although nominally backed by Boc and by Macovei, had failed to gather majority support at earlier party reunions. He supported Băsescu's message to the PDL, which counseled the party to find itself a candidate (and successor to Băsescu) on par with Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
or Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, and reiterated the call for politicians "of conviction". The reformist group obtained the revision of charters which prevented junior members from running in party elections, but their main motion on party policies was defeated by the PDL's Berceanu-Blaga "old guard".
Additionally, Voinescu expressed disapproval for some Boc cabinet policies which he sees as deviating from the PDL's right-wing credentials, including the "pensioners' basket" welfare program, and publicly called for a radical change of 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...
, deeming it "profoundly flawed" for what he interprets as a chronic failure to uphold the separation of powers
Separation of powers
The separation of powers, often imprecisely used interchangeably with the trias politica principle, is a model for the governance of a state. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman Republic as part of the unmodified Constitution of the Roman Republic...
. His endorsement of a project to award the Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
a say in the allocation of welfare programs generated criticism among secularist
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
analysts, who commented that it bastardized the concept of social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
and effectively reduced the separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
, or that it offered the Church an inflated role in politics and civil society.
A parallel dispute ensued, between Voinescu and Preda: Voinescu is a noted critic of party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...
and endorses first-past-the-post voting; in contrast, Preda dismisses his colleague's project as "populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
mythology", arguing that further election reform would do little to address the realities of political corruption
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...
. The two figures were opposed by their attitudes on Boc, when Preda, unlike Macovei and Voinescu, chose not to endorse Boc's candidature for a new term as PDL leader. There was also a disagreement between Voinescu and President Băsescu in matters of world politics, after the latter went on record with a claim that Romania's future development depended on a hypothetical United States of Europe
United States of Europe
Since the 1950s, European integration has seen the development of a supranational system of governance, as its institutions move further from the concept of simple intergovernmentalism. However, with the Maastricht Treaty of 1993, new intergovernmental elements have been introduced alongside the...
federation. Tracing the mixed results of Federal Europe concepts through history, Voinescu replied: "My personal opinion is that this goal is as beautiful as it is unreachable." Voinescu took a middle ground in the disputes between Băsescu and Dilemas Andrei Pleşu, arguing that the President's criticism of his mentor contained "uninspired metaphors"—in reaction, anti-Băsescu writer Bedros Horasangian asked: "How is it that Sever Voinescu [...] can still face up to Andrei Pleşu?"
People's Movement project
Speaking in September 2011, Voinescu dismissed criticism of the PDL coming from outgoing Labor Minister Sebastian Lăzăroiu, an independent politician. When asked to reply about Lăzăroiu's alternative proposals that the PDL transform itself into a "People's Movement" or perish, Voinescu stated his amusement, and noted: "I never did preoccupy myself with Mr. Lăzăroiu's prophecies." Confronted with speculation that the People's Movement project would attract into its ranks rogue members of the PNL who opposed the PSD alliance, Voinescu replied (in English): "Too soon to tell!"Voinescu later returned with more explicit remarks, clarifying that the Movement was a sound project, which could help coagulate the Romanian right. He was also directing criticism toward the PDL's partner in government, the nominally left-wing National Union for the Progress of Romania
National Union for the Progress of Romania
The National Union for the Progress of Romania is a political party of Romania. The party was formed in March 2010 by a group of independents who had broken away from the Social Democratic Party and National Liberal Party and support President Traian Băsescu...
, arguing that it could not expect to be included in the emerging party: "rest assured, nobody asked you in." In public statements, Voinescu ridiculed the political aspirations of OTV owner Dan Diaconescu and his own People's Party
People's Party – Dan Diaconescu
The People's Party – Dan Diaconescu is a Romanian political party created in 2011 by television presenter Dan Diaconescu....
, viewing them as demagogic; he rejected suggestions of an alliance between Diaconescu and the PDL. When Lăzăroiu and Mihail Neamţu launched their own platform, Noua Republică, Voinescu admitted that it could win over a sizable portion of the PDL electorate.
In October 2011, Voinescu was head of the Romanian delegation at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
NATO Parliamentary Assembly
Founded in 1955, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Alliance. Its current President is Karl A...
meeting, held in Bucharest. In this capacity, he signed the protocol which gave Romanian support for Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
's Euro-Atlantic integration, and expressed the official viewpoint that Russia had no reason to fear the national missile defense
National Missile Defense
National missile defense is a generic term for a type of missile defense intended to shield an entire country against incoming missiles, such as intercontinental ballistic missile or other ballistic missiles. Interception might be by anti-ballistic missiles or directed-energy weapons such as lasers...
developed in Eastern Europe.
External links
Voinescu's articles in Dilema VecheDilema 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...