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Corneliu Vadim Tudor

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Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Member of the European Parliament for Romania
In office
14 July 2009 – 1 July 2014
Vice-President of the Senate of Romania
In office
19 December 2004 – 14 December 2008
PresidentNicolae Văcăroiu
Member of the Senate of Romania
In office
16 October 1992 – 14 December 2008
ConstituencyBucharest
Leader of the Greater Romania Party
In office
20 June 1991 – 14 September 2015
Succeeded byEmil Străinu
Personal details
Born
Corneliu Tudor

(1949-11-28)28 November 1949
Bucharest, Romanian People's Republic
Died14 September 2015(2015-09-14) (aged 65)
Bucharest, Romania
Resting placeGhencea Cemetery, Bucharest
Political partyRomanian Communist Party (1980–⁠1989)
Greater Romania Party (1991–⁠2015)
Spouse
Doina Tudor
​
(m. 1987⁠–⁠2015)​
ChildrenLidia Tudor, Eugenia Tudor
RelativesMarcu Tudor (brother)
EducationSaint Sava National College
Alma materUniversity of Bucharest
University of Vienna
University of Craiova
Ovidius University
OccupationWriter, poet, journalist, politician
ProfessionHistorian, sociologist, theologian
ReligionRomanian Orthodox
Websitevadim-tudor.ro

Corneliu Vadim Tudor (Romanian pronunciation: [korˈnelju vaˈdim ˈtudor]; 28 November 1949 – 14 September 2015), also colloquially known as "Tribunul", was a poet, writer, and journalist who was the leader of the Greater Romania Party (Romanian: Partidul România Mare) and a Member of the European Parliament. He was a Romanian senator from 1992 to 2008. He was born and died in Bucharest, Romania.[1]

As a political figure, he was known for having held strong nationalist[2] views, which were reflected in his rhetoric and his denunciation of political opponents (a tactic which the judgements in several civil lawsuits handed down against him deemed to be slanderous).[citation needed] He was most commonly referred to as "Vadim", which was a name he selected for himself, not a family name (and not shared with his brother, former Romanian Army officer Marcu Tudor [ro]).[3]

Biography

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Tudor was born in Bucharest on 28 November 1949, into a working-class family, his father being a tailor.[4] In his youth, being an admirer of the French film director Roger Vadim, he chose the pseudonym Vadim as his middle name.[citation needed]

In 1971, he received a degree in sociology from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest, and in 1975, he studied at the School for Reserve Officers in Bucharest.[5] With the help of his mentor, Herder Prize winner Eugen Barbu, he obtained a scholarship and studied in Vienna from 1978 to 1979.[6] During the communist era, he worked as a journalist, editor, and poet: in the early 1970s, he was one of the editors at România liberă, and after 1975 was an editor at the Romanian official press agency, Agerpress. He served as senator from 1992 to 2008. For the first time since 1990, after the election of 30 November 2008, he and his party were no longer present in either of the Romanian legislative chambers. On 25 September 2001, Tudor renounced his parliamentary immunity from prosecution.[7]

In December 2004, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel returned the Steaua României medal, one of the country's highest honors, after President Ion Iliescu awarded Tudor the same honor in the last days of his presidency. Wiesel said he was returning the honor because he could not "accept being placed on the same level" as Tudor and fellow party member (and honor recipient) Gheorghe Buzatu.[8] 15 Radio Free Europe journalists, Timișoara mayor Gheorghe Ciuhandu, songwriter Alexandru Andrieș [ro], and historian Randolph Braham all returned their Steaua României medals as well due to the awards given Tudor and Buzatu.[9] Tudor's Steaua României award was revoked by Romanian president Traian Băsescu in May 2007.[10] Tudor consequently announced that he would sue Băsescu for abuse of power;[11] in the end, Tudor won the trial with Băsescu.[12]

As a poet he made his debut in May 1965 at the national radio station with a poem read in the George Călinescu literary circle. He published several volumes of prose and poetry: Poezii (Poems; 1977), Epistole vieneze (Viennese Epistles; 1979), Poeme de dragoste, ură și speranță (Poems of Love, Hatred and Hope; 1981), Idealuri (Ideals; 1983), Saturnalii (Saturnalia, 1983), Istorie și civilizatie (History and Civilization; 1983), Mândria de a fi români (The Pride of Being Romanian; 1985), Miracole (Miracles; 1986 anthology), Jurnal de vacanță (Holiday Journal, 1996), Poems (translated in seven languages, published in Torino, Italy, 1998), Europa Creștină (Christian Europe), and Artificii (Artifices; 2010).[13]

Personal life

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Tudor was married and had two children. He died of a heart attack on 14 September 2015 in his native Bucharest,[14][15] and was buried in the city's Ghencea Cemetery.

His daughter, Lidia Vadim Tudor, is a candidate for the Alliance for the Union of Romanians in the 2024 Romanian local elections.[16]

Ideology

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In June 1990, Tudor and Eugen Barbu founded the nationalist weekly magazine România Mare ("Greater Romania"), which began as a magazine for the government's policies.[citation needed] Later evidence affirmed "Greater Romania" was released with the help of the Communist administration in Bucharest.[17]

In 1991, they founded the Greater Romania Party, the platform of which Time magazine described as "a crude mixture of anti-Semitism,[18] racism and nostalgia for the good old days of communism". Some statements and articles by Tudor and his colleagues can be described[citation needed] as ultranationalist, anti-Hungarian, anti-Roma and homophobic.[19][20][21][22]

Besides Moldova, Tudor wanted Greater Romania to include Bessarabia, Budjak, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region, which have belonged to Ukraine since the dissolution of the Soviet Union but were part of Moldavia until the Russian annexation in 1812, and part of Romania between 1918 and 1940 and between 1941 and 1944. România Mare has been sued for libel with stunning frequency, often for Tudor's own writings (which he usually, if not always, signed under the pseudonym Alcibiade). Between 1993 and 1996, his party supported the leftist governmental coalition (the "Red Quadrilateral").[citation needed]

Tudor's and his party's change from national communism to ultranationalism took place after 1996. In 1999, Dan Corneliu Hudici, a former reporter at România Mare, claimed there was a "secret blacklist" of dozens of politicians (including President Emil Constantinescu), journalists, and businessmen to be arrested if Tudor's party came to power. That allegation only increase Tudor's popularity. In the first round of the Romanian presidential elections on 26 November 2000, Tudor finished second with 28% of the vote. Four years earlier, he had come in fifth. However, nearly all other parties backed Ion Iliescu in the 11 December runoff, and Tudor only gained five points compared to his first round performance while Iliescu surged from 36% to 67%.[citation needed]

Tudor supported Romania's entry to the European Union and sustained its presence in NATO. In 2003, Tudor claimed to have changed his views on Jews and the Holocaust.[23] In a letter dated 1 February 2004, he retracted certain earlier statements he had made as inappropriately anti-Semitic. Further, he wrote: "I know that I was wrong to have denied the Holocaust in Romania, which happened between 1941 and 1944 under Antonescu's regime". Many publicly questioned his sincerity and motivations of the change and viewed it simply as a political ploy.[24]

Ahead of the 2000 presidential election, Tudor, who finished in second, made the reintroduction of capital punishment a major plank of his campaign.[25]

On 18 October 2012, while he was speaking on the talk show Romania la Raport, Tudor said that "in Romania there was never a Holocaust ... I will deny it till I die because I love my people".[26]

He fired an advisor, who happened to be Jewish and a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, Nati Meir. Tudor claimed it was because of allegations of bribery, but Meir claimed it was because of antisemitism. It turned out that the Romanian press discovered that Meir had been convicted in Israel of banking fraud and so was incompatible with the office of member of the Chamber of Deputies.[citation needed]

On 15 November 2006, Meir was brought to trial by the Romanian authorities for tax evasion, fraud and swindling and was accused of illegalities concerning work permits for Israel. Tudor styled himself The Tribune, a title that originates in Ancient Rome but has more combative meaning in Romanian history since it stood for certain activists in the self-defence of Romanian communities in Transylvania against the Revolutionary government in Hungary (see Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas).[citation needed]

Awards

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Electoral history

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Presidential elections

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Election Affiliation First round Second round
Votes Percentage Position Votes Percentage Position
1996 PRM 597,508
4.7%
  5th  not qualified
2000 PRM 3,178,293
28.34%
  2nd  3,324,247
33.17%
  2nd 
2004 PRM 1,313,714
12.6%
  3rd  not qualified
2009 PRM 540,380
5.56%
  4th  not qualified
2014 PRM 349,416
3.68%
  7th  not qualified

References

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  1. ^ Alison Mutler (14 September 2015). "Corneliu Vadim Tudor, ultranationalist Romanian poet and politician, dies at 65". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  2. ^ "Romania's far-right contender". BBC. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  3. ^ Deputy Marcu Tudor's webpage, cdep.ro; accessed 17 September 2015.(in Romanian)
  4. ^ "Far-Right MPs Join Forces in EU Parliament: A Small Thorn in The EU's Side". Spiegel. 23 January 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  5. ^ "Corneliu Vadim Tudor implineste 61 de ani" (in Romanian). Ziare. 26 June 2003. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  6. ^ "Corneliu Vadim Tudor". www.munzinger.de (in German). Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  7. ^ "RFE/RL Newsline". HRI. 9 January 2001. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  8. ^ "Controversial Moves by Romanian President Before Exit". www.worldpress.org. 23 December 2004.
  9. ^ see the Ion Iliescu article
  10. ^ "Vadim Tudor dez-onorat". Ziua (in Romanian). 27 May 2007. Archived from the original on 2 July 2007. Retrieved 27 May 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  11. ^ "Vadim îl dă in judecată pe Băsescu pentru retragerea decorației". www.ziare.com. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  12. ^ "C.V. Tudor: Am câștigat procesul cu Băsescu in cazul Steaua României". www.ziare.com.
  13. ^ "Corneliu Vadim Tudor, Romania's most influential politician, dies at age 65". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  14. ^ Livia Ispas (14 September 2015). "Corneliu Vadim Tudor a murit". Mediax.
  15. ^ "Corneliu Vadim Tudor: Court poet to Nicolae Ceaușescu who became an extreme nationalist figure after the fall of communism in Romania". The Independent. 16 September 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  16. ^ "Lidia Vadim Tudor este candidatul AUR pentru Primăria Sector 5". Digi24 (in Romanian). 2 April 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  17. ^ Petre Berteanu, Romanian nationalism and political communication: Greater Romania Party (Partidul Romania Mare), a case-study, In: Jaroslav Hroch, David Hollan, George F. McLean, National, Cultural, and Ethnic Identities: Harmony Beyond Conflict, CRVP, 1998, p. 170. ISBN 978-1-56518-170-0
  18. ^ Daniela Humoreanu, "His Blood Upon Your Children" Archived 20 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine, bu.edu; accessed 11 January 2007.
  19. ^ LGBTQ News & Calendar for the Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Times; retrieved 30 December 2013.
  20. ^ Romanian Equality Watchdog Rules Anti-Romani Speech by Romanian Politician is Discriminatory, ERRC.org; retrieved 30 December 2013.
  21. ^ Frontline/World: Reporter's Notebook: House of Tudor, PBS.org; retrieved 30 December 2013.
  22. ^ The Primitive Discrimination Archived 27 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Bu.edu; retrieved 30 December 2013.
  23. ^ "Romania: The Continuing Secret Police Cover Up". Der Spiegel. 24 November 2004. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  24. ^ Vadim sees the light, Haaretz, 7 April 2004.
  25. ^ (in Romanian) Cristian Delcea, "Pedeapsa cu moartea, o problemă care a divizat România" ("Capital Punishment, a Problem That Has Divided Romania"), Adevărul, 25 July 2014.
  26. ^ "Corneliu Vadim Tudor: "În România n-a existat Holocaust"" (in Romanian). S.C. Press Media Electronic SRL. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
  27. ^ "Vadim Tudor rămâne cu Steaua României" (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  28. ^ "Vremea noua – Liderul presei vasluiene". vremeanoua.ro (in Romanian). 19 October 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
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