Nicolae Ciucă

Nicolae Ciucă
Official portrait, 2021
President of the Senate of Romania
Incumbent
Assumed office
13 June 2023
Preceded byAlina Gorghiu (acting)
Prime Minister of Romania
In office
25 November 2021 – 12 June 2023
PresidentKlaus Iohannis
DeputyHunor Kelemen
Sorin Grindeanu
Preceded byFlorin Cîțu
Succeeded byCătălin Predoiu (acting)
Marcel Ciolacu
Acting
7 December 2020 – 23 December 2020
PresidentKlaus Iohannis
DeputyRaluca Turcan
Preceded byLudovic Orban
Succeeded byFlorin Cîțu
Minister of National Defence
In office
4 November 2019 – 25 November 2021
Prime MinisterLudovic Orban
Himself
Florin Cîțu
Preceded byGabriel-Beniamin Leș [ro]
Succeeded byVasile Dîncu
President of the National Liberal Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
10 April 2022
Preceded byGheorghe Flutur (acting)
Senator of Romania
Incumbent
Assumed office
21 December 2020
ConstituencyDolj County
Chief of the Romanian General Staff
In office
1 January 2015 – 28 October 2019
PresidentKlaus Iohannis
Preceded byȘtefan Dănilă [ro]
Succeeded byDaniel Petrescu
Personal details
Born (1967-02-07) 7 February 1967 (age 57)
Plenița, Dolj County, Socialist Republic of Romania
Political partyNational Liberal Party (2020–present)
Other political
affiliations		Romanian Communist Party (1986—1989)[1]
SpouseCristina Maria Ciucă
Children1
Awards
Military service
Branch/serviceRomanian Land Forces
Years of service1988–2019
RankGeneral
Commands
Battles/wars

Nicolae Ionel Ciucă (pronounced [nikoˈla.e joˈnel ˈtʃjukə]; born 7 February 1967) is a Romanian politician and retired general of the Romanian Land Forces who is serving as the president of the Senate of Romania.[2][3][4] Ideologically a conservative,[5][6][7] he served as Prime Minister of Romania between 25 November 2021 and 12 June 2023 after receiving widespread parliamentary support on behalf of his own party, the National Liberal Party (PNL) along with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ). Since 10 April 2022, he has also been serving as the president of the National Liberal Party (PNL). On 12 June 2023, he resigned as prime minister, as part of a deal with his coalition partner, the PSD, to switch places with Marcel Ciolacu, and was temporarily replaced by Cătălin Predoiu.[8]

Ciucă has participated in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was the Chief of the Romanian General Staff from 2015 to 2019, and from 2019 to 2021 was the Minister of Defence. He briefly led as caretaker the Romanian government between 7 and 23 December 2020, in the aftermath of former prime minister Ludovic Orban's resignation. On 21 October 2021, he was appointed by President Klaus Iohannis to form a new government following the dissolution of the Cîțu Cabinet and the rejection of Dacian Cioloș as prime minister but subsequently gave up his mandate. Iohannis nominated him again on 22 November 2021.

Early life and education

[edit]

Nicolae Ciucă was born in Plenița, a commune in Dolj County, on 7 February 1967. He graduated from the Tudor Vladimirescu Military Lyceum in Craiova in 1985 and from the Nicolae Bălcescu Land Forces Academy in Sibiu in 1988.[9]

Military career

[edit]

During his military career, he participated in missions in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iraq. From 2001 to 2004, he was commander of the 26th Infantry Battalion (also known as the Red Scorpions), with which he participated in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Ancient Babylon in Iraq. He was promoted to the rank of General on 25 October 2010.[9][10]

In 2015, he replaced Ștefan Dănilă [ro] as Chief of the Romanian General Staff.[11] His 4-year term under this office was extended for another year by the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in 2018.[9][11] This caused a conflict between Iohannis, the Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă, and the then Minister of Defense, Gabriel-Beniamin Leș [ro], who intended to change office.[11]

Political career

[edit]
See also: Ciucă Cabinet

On 28 October 2024, Ciucă admitted that he joined the Romanian Communist Party in 1986, but claimed that every military officer had to do that and that he wasn't a communist.[12]

The National Liberal Party (PNL) proposed Ciucă as Minister of Defense of the First Orban Cabinet.[10][9] He was transferred as a reserve on 28 October 2019,[11] being succeeded as Chief of the Romanian General Staff by Daniel Petrescu.[13] He became the Minister of Defense of Romania on 4 November 2019.[14] In October 2020, he joined the National Liberal Party (PNL) to run as a senator for the Senate of Romania in that year's legislative elections[15] and was subsequently elected as well.[16]

On 7 December 2020, following the resignation of Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, he was named acting prime minister by Iohannis. He led as caretaker the government until a new coalition government was formed under Florin Cîțu on 23 December as a consequence of the result of the 2020 Romanian legislative election.[17][18]

However, after the Cîțu Cabinet was dissolved through a motion of no confidence on 5 October 2021,[19] Iohannis nominated Ciucă as Prime Minister-designate on 21 October 2021.[20] While the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) quickly agreed to renew a minority government with the PNL, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) offered to support him temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic in exchange for agreeing to 10 measures.[21] He presented his government on 29 October.[22] Having failed to win the support of the PSD or the Save Romania Union (USR), he gave up forming a government on 1 November.[23][24] He was nominated again as Prime Minister-designate on 22 November 2021[25] and was confirmed by the parliament on 25 November after receiving 318 votes in favor.[26] He was sworn in the office hours later.[27]

After Florin Cîțu resigned as president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) on 2 April 2022, followed by an 8-day ad interim leadership of Gheorghe Flutur, Ciucă was elected as the new party leader. He is the third consecutive politician since 2019 to serve as both prime minister and president of the PNL at one point, the first two being Orban and Cîțu.[28]

Ciucă (right) meeting European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli (left) during a feminist conference in Bucharest on 6 March 2023

On 26 August 2022, Ciucă signed the first financing contracts of the so-called Anghel Saligny investment program, a foundation whose purpose is to develop settlements for Romanian civilians, formally created as a result of the 2021 Romanian political crisis.[29] Since the investment of the Ciucă-led CNR cabinet, Romania has experienced a shift towards authoritarianism and illiberalism.[30][31][32][33]

In March 2023, Ciucă introduced an artificial intelligence assistant, an "honorary advisor" known as ION, which aims to scan social networks to inform the government of the Romanian people's wishes and opinions.[34] Following the introduction, Nicu Sebe, the coordinator of the research team behind ION, revealed that the event was staged with the AI being unable to generate responses;[35] instead, there was a human operator responsible for selecting pre-prepared responses to anticipated questions.[36] Besides this, it was revealed that out of the 500,000 messages that ION got, only the positive ones were published, with the rest being filtered out.[37]

On 12 June 2023, according to the protocol of the CNR, Ciucă resigned.[38] He was replaced as prime minister by Marcel Ciolacu. He became the President of the Senate of Romania on 13 June 2023.[39]

Under Ciucă's premiership, Romania experienced democratic backsliding,[40] with The Economist ranking it last in the European Union in the world terms of democracy,[41] even behind Viktor Orbán's Hungary.[42]

Awards

[edit]

Ciucă is the recipient of the Ordre national du Mérite of the French Republic, Commander rank,[43] and of the National Order of Merit of Romania, Commander rank.[44] In 2019, he was awarded the Order of the Star of Romania, Officer rank.[45] In 2020, he was awarded the Legion of Merit by U.S. Ambassador Adrian Zuckerman.[46]

Controversies

[edit]

Plagiarism

[edit]

Nicolae Ciucă has been accused of plagiarizing his PhD thesis by the independent news organization PressOne. Following a year and a half-long investigation, the organization was able to transcribe and digitalize his thesis, "The dimension of the Romanian army's engagement in multinational joint operations", finding that multiple pages of his work were copied, word for word, from other works without the texts correctly attributed to the original authors and lacking the requisite quotation marks, as required by academic norms.[47][48][49] During the investigation, journalist Emilia Șercan discovered that at least 42 out of the 138 pages in the doctorate thesis were plagiarized and that 94.2% of the plagiarized content in Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă's thesis originates from non-digitized works, which could not be detected using anti-plagirizing software. Nicolae Ciucă denied the accusations, stating they "cannot be scientifically proven."[50]

Personal life

[edit]

Ciucă is married and has a child.[9]

Political views

[edit]

Ciucă opposes same-sex marriage as well as civil unions.[51]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ https://www.g4media.ro/nicolae-ciuca-a-recunoscut-ca-a-fost-membru-al-partidului-comunist-roman-dar-nu-am-fost-niciodata-comunist-el-a-raspuns-la-o-intrebare-pusa-de-marcel-ciolacu.html
  2. ^ "Nicolae Ciucă a fost ales președinte al Senatului. Care au fost marii absenți de la vot".
  3. ^ "Nicolae Ciucă este noul președinte al Senatului". 13 June 2023.
  4. ^ "VIDEO Nicolae Ciucă a fost ales în funcția de președinte al Senatului". 13 June 2023.
  5. ^ "Generalul Nicolae Ciucă "dă milităria jos din pod" în PNL, iar partidul devine "popular", pe model PPE: Conservator, creștin-democrat și liberal". 11 April 2022.
  6. ^ Pora, Andreea (9 April 2022). "Ciucă ales la al XVI-lea congres. Efectul asupra viitorului PNL". Europa Liberă România.
  7. ^ "Romania's new conservative-socialist government sworn in". 26 November 2021.
  8. ^ "Nicolae Ciucă a demisionat. Președintele Klaus Iohannis l-a numit premier interimar pe Cătălin Predoiu". Digi 24. 12 June 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d e Cozmei, Victor (24 October 2019). "Cine este Nicolae Ciucă, propus ministrul Apărării: militar de carieră, cunoscut ca "generalul deșertului", a condus în Irak prima bătalie a soldaților români după al doilea război mondial". HotNews (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  10. ^ a b "Klaus Iohannis a semnat decretul privind trecerea în rezervă a generalului Nicolae Ciucă, propus ministru al Apărării". Digi24 (in Romanian). 28 October 2019. Archived from the original on 5 November 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d Postelnicu, Valentina (5 November 2019). "Cine este Nicolae Ciucă, ministrul Apărării Naţionale. Militarul cu cel mai mare grad din Armată, este generalul român care a condus personal o misiune de luptă, în Irak". Libertatea (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  12. ^ https://www.g4media.ro/nicolae-ciuca-a-recunoscut-ca-a-fost-membru-al-partidului-comunist-roman-dar-nu-am-fost-niciodata-comunist-el-a-raspuns-la-o-intrebare-pusa-de-marcel-ciolacu.html
  13. ^ "Generalul-locotenent Daniel Petrescu, noul șef al Statului Major al Apărării" (in Romanian). Ministry of National Defence. 29 November 2019. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  14. ^ Năstase, Mirabela (4 November 2019). "Cine este Nicolae Ciucă, noul ministru al Apărării Naționale". Antena 1 (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 5 November 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  15. ^ "Ministrul apărării, Nicolae Ciucă, s-a înscris în PNL și va candida pentru Senat" (in Romanian). Digi24. 18 October 2020. Archived from the original on 8 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  16. ^ "Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă". www.cdep.ro (in Romanian). Parliament of Romania. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  17. ^ "Nicolae Ciucă a fost numit prim-ministru interimar" (in Romanian). Digi24. 7 December 2020. Archived from the original on 7 December 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  18. ^ "Noul Guvern de coaliție condus de Florin Cîțu a fost învestit de Parlament. Mesajul lui Iohannis, la ceremonia de învestire". Mediafax (in Romanian). 23 December 2020. Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  19. ^ Adam, Georgiana (5 October 2021). "Guvernul Cîțu a picat. Moțiunea de cenzură a trecut cu 281 de voturi". Antena 3 (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 16 October 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  20. ^ Păcurar, Bogdan (21 October 2021). "Klaus Iohannis: "Am decis să-l desemnez drept candidat pentru funcția de prim-ministru pe Nicolae Ciucă"". Digi24 (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 21 October 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  21. ^ "PSD: Ciolacu a discutat telefonic cu premierul desemnat; i-a cerut includerea în programul de guvernare a 10 măsuri urgente" (in Romanian). Agerpres. 23 October 2021. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  22. ^ "Nicolae Ciucă va merge în Parlament cu un guvern minoritar PNL-UDMR. Iată lista miniștrilor: USR nu votează noul cabinet". Economica. 29 October 2021. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  23. ^ "Romania's crisis continues as latest PM-designate throws in the towel". Euronews. 25 November 2021. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  24. ^ "Ciucă: Am depus mandatul de premier desemnat. Biroul Executiv a cerut. Cîțu: Propunerea de premier va fi decizia partidului" (in Romanian). Digi24. 1 November 2021. Archived from the original on 2 November 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  25. ^ "Iohannis: Îl desemnez pe Nicolae Ciucă pentru a forma o echipă guvernamentală. S-a format o majoritate solidă PNL, PSD, UDMR și grupul minorităților / Ciucă: Sperăm ca de joi să ne apucăm serios de treabă". G4 Media (in Romanian). 22 November 2021. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  26. ^ Roșca, Matei (25 November 2021). "Romanian parliament elects Nicolae Ciucă as prime minister". Politico. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  27. ^ "Romanian President Swears In New Government, Declares 'Political Crisis Over'". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 25 November 2021. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  28. ^ "Nicolae Ciucă este noul președinte PNL". www.digi24.ro (in Romanian). 10 April 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  29. ^ "Premierul Nicolae Ciucă a semnat primele contracte de finanțare din Programul de Investiții "Anghel Saligny"". www.antena3.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  30. ^ "PNL și PSD împing România către un regim autoritar. Amendamentul surpriză din legea anti-ONG, folosit împotriva presei. "Ne ducem într-o direcție foarte periculoasă"". 20 February 2023.
  31. ^ "Degradare accelerată și fără precedent a democrației în regimul Iohannis-Ciucă. România e redusă la tăcere, PNL se PSD-izează rapid". 29 June 2022.
  32. ^ Andrei, Cristian (1 August 2022). "Analiză | Riscul democrației iliberale în România. Umbra serviciilor, plagiat, presă plătită de partide și proiecte secrete". Retrieved 3 February 2024 – via romania.europalibera.org.
  33. ^ "România iliberală? Va aduce coaliția PSD-PNL-UDMR reformele necesare sau se va îngriji doar de clientela politică?". 7 December 2021.
  34. ^ "OK Computer: Romania debuts 'world's first' AI government adviser". 1 March 2023. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  35. ^ "Was the launch of ION a stage play?". Youtube.
  36. ^ "The creator of ION admits that the dialogue with Ciucă was staged". HotNews.
  37. ^ "Out of 500,000 messages to ION, only the positive ones are published". HotNews.
  38. ^ "Nicolae Ciucă a demisionat din funcția de prim-ministru. Cătălin Predoiu, numit premier interimar". 12 June 2023.
  39. ^ "UPDATE - Nicolae Ciucă a fost ales preşedinte al Senatului". 13 June 2023.
  40. ^ "Romania: Nations in Transit 2022 Country Report".
  41. ^ "Romania, last among EU countries in the Economist's annual Democracy Index". 3 February 2023.
  42. ^ "România, cea mai slabă democrație din Uniunea Europeană. "Societatea noastră este prinsă într-un cerc vicios"". 2 February 2023.
  43. ^ "Cine este Nicolae Ciucă, premierul interimar. A primit Ordinul Național de Merit al Republicii Franceze" (in Romanian). EuropaFM. 8 December 2020. Archived from the original on 21 October 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  44. ^ "Nicolae Ciucă, prim-ministru desemnat (fișă biografică)" (in Romanian). Agerpres. 30 October 2021. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  45. ^ "Ordinul Național Steaua României a fost conferit directorului SRI și ministrului apărării naționale". www.juridice.ro (in Romanian). 29 November 2019. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  46. ^ "Ambassador Adrian Zuckerman at the Awarding of Legion of Merit to Acting Prime Minister Nicolae Ionel Ciuca". ro.usembassy.gov. U.S. Embassy in Romania. 15 December 2020. Archived from the original on 15 November 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  47. ^ Șercan, Emilia. "Prime-Minister Nicolae Ciucă has plagiarized". PressOne.
  48. ^ "Nicolae Ciucă, "Doctor"". Recorder.
  49. ^ Neacșu, Bobi. "Criminal case opened in the plagiarism case of Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă's doctoral thesis". Libertatea.
  50. ^ "Nicolae Ciucă denies accusations". Digi24.
  51. ^ "Ciucă, despre decizia CEDO referitoare la parteneriatul civil: PNL va susţine în continuare familia tradiţională, credinţa în Dumnezeu şi patriotismul". www.hotnews.ro. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
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Military offices
Preceded by Chief of the Romanian General Staff
2015–2019 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of National Defence
2019–2021 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of Romania
Acting
2020 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of Romania
2021–2023 		Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the Senate of Romania
2023–present 		Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the National Liberal Party
2022–present 		Incumbent
Order of precedence
Preceded byas President Order of precedence in Romania
President of the Senate 		Succeeded byas President of the Chamber of Deputies
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