Corneliu Vadim Tudor

Corneliu Vadim Tudor (b. November 28, 1949) is leader of the ultra-nationalist Greater Romania Party (Partidul România Mare).

During the reign of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, Tudor was energetic in his praise (in prose and poetry) of the dictator. Changing from a communist to an ultra-nationalist after Ceauşescu's fall and execution in 1989, Tudor founded the ultra-nationalist weekly România Mare ("Greater Romania") and, in 1991, the Greater Romania Party, whose platform Time magazine described as "a crude mixture of anti-Semitism, racism and nostalgia for the good old days of communism." To this, one ought to add ultra-nationalism, anti-Magyarism, and anti-gypsyism. Oddly, for an ultra-nationalist, Tudor supports Romania's entry into the European Union and wishes to remain in NATO. Al-Ahram has called him the "Jean-Marie Le Pen of the Carpathians,"[1].

In 1999, Dan Corneliu Hudici, a former reporter at România Mare, claimed there was a secret "blacklist" of dozens of politicians (including then-president Emil Constantinescu), journalists, and businessmen to be arrested if Tudor's party came to power.

In the first round of the Romanian presidential elections on November 26,2000, Tudor finshed second with 28% of the vote. (Four years earlier, he had com in fifth.) However, nearly all other parties backed Ion Iliescu in the December 11 runoff, and Tudor only picked up five additional percentage points, while Iliescu surged from 36% to 67%.

România Mare has been sued for libel with stunning frequency, often for Tudor's own writings (which he usually - if not always - signs under a pseudonym).

Biographical information

Born in Bucharest November 28, 1949 into a working-class family. His father was, at one time a Baptist priest, but he professes the Romanian Orthodox religion.
Received a degree in Philosophy from the University of Bucharest in 1971.
In 1975, he studied at the School for Reserve Officers in Bucharest.
In 1978-1979 his scholarship was honored with a Herder prize, which allowed him to study history in Vienna.
He worked as a journalist, editor, and poet under the communist regime; in the early 1970s, he edited the magazine România Libera ("Free Romania") and after 1975 was an editor at the Agerpress agency.
Has served as a Romanian Senator since 1992.
On September 25, 2001, Tudor gave up his parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
He has written at least 10 volumes of poetry and political commentary, at least one of which has been translated into French, English, and Arabic. He has also written for the stage.
He is married with two children.

Quotation

"This country [Romania] could only be governed through the mouth of a machine gun," 1998, quoted by CNN, December 9, 2000.