Radu Câmpeanu

Radu-Anton Câmpeanu (28 February 1922 – 19 October 2016) was a Romanian politician who was also jurist and economist by profession, after graduating from the University of Bucharest (UB) in November 1945, specializing in constitutional right.

During the interwar period and up until 1945, he was the leader of the National Liberal students' association at nationwide level (the equivalent of today's National Liberal Youth Wing or TNL for short).

While in exile abroad in France, at some point in time due to the exile of Paul Goma and his arrival in France as well, Câmpeanu was suspected to have become an informer of the Securitatea (the Romanian communist secret police), but no conclusive evidence had been produced to support this allegation.

Throughout his years of exile, he had worked as an editorialist and as a collaborator for a Radio Univers as well as for Radio Free Europe and BBC.

On 8 November 1945, several months after the end of World War II, Câmpeanu participated in the first street protest of the civil society (encompassing both students and workers) which were organised in Bucharest against the forcefully-established communist regime by the Soviets in the Kingdom of Romania.

The respective manifestation was also one of support for King Michael I.

According to Câmpeanu himself, there were between 1,200 and 1,500 students from various university centres who participated in the respective protest which was held on 8 November 1945.

Two years later, in 1947, he was incarcerated by the Securitate (as many other non- and anti-communist politicians from the historical PNL and PNȚ) and sent to forced labour for 15 years in the construction of the Danube–Black Sea Canal.

Câmpeanu was freed in 1956, 6 years ahead of the planned authoritarian sentence, as part of the de-Stalinization process which the Romanian People's Republic (RPR) undertook during the late 1950s (in essence, a policy of distancing itself from Moscow's control, thereby breaking free from the USSR satellite status).

On 30 July 1973, with financial help on behalf of his family from abroad (more specifically, from Switzerland and France), Câmpeanu (at that time aged 55) managed to leave communist Romania for Paris, France alongside his first wife, Monica Papadopol, and their son, Barbu.

The three were ransomed in exchange for approximately 10,000 USD.

In addition, during the 1980s (for a period of time of seven years), he also worked as an editorialist for his own newspaper, entitled B.I.R.E. (i.e. Buletinul de Informație pentru Români în Exil or The Bulletin of Information for Romanians in exile).

Furthermore, while still in exile, Radu Câmpeanu was the president of the Association of Former Political Detainees from Romania (Asociația Foștilor Deținuți Politici din România) as well as a member of the Thinking and Action Liberal Club (Clubul de Gândire și Acțiune Liberală, also known as Clubul de Acțiune și Gândire Liberală Românească, Clubul Liberal Român, or Clubul Liberal).

Câmpeanu was the first president of the contemporary National Liberal Party (PNL) whose term unfolded between 1990 and 1993, a political party he helped re-found in early January 1990, shortly after the fall of communism, as well as a Senator on behalf of the PNL between 1990 and 1992, and then once more between 2004 and 2008.

During the early 1990s, Câmpeanu served as one of the 5 vice-presidents of the Provisional National Unity Council (Consiliul Provizoriu de Uniune Națională), also known as CPUN for short, a position which could be equated with that of state vice-president.

Câmpeanu participated in the first Romanian presidential debate after 1989, alongside Ion Iliescu of the National Salvation Front (FSN) and Ion Rațiu of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD), held on 17 May 1990.

Câmpeanu subsequently came in second after Ion Iliescu in the 1990 Romanian presidential election with 1,529,188 votes or 10.64%.

As a politician, according to him, he was a supporter of dialogue between people who have contrary opinions.

Radu Câmpeanu was the leader of the National Liberal students' league at nationwide level before World War II.

Câmpeanu remained very active amongst Romanian exiles in Western Europe up until 1990, when he returned to his home country in the wake of the Romanian Revolution of 1989.

While he was away in exile in France, he would lead such anti-communist and anti-totalitarian organisations as the Community of Romanians in France (Comunitatea românilor din Franţa), the National Romanian Council (Consiliul Naţional Român), and the Union of Free Romanians (Uniunea Mondială a românilor liberi).

He was subsequently awarded French citizenship upon personal request, three years after his initial arrival in France, while not forfeiting his native Romanian one in the process.

This later allowed him to be a member of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), a center-right and liberal political party which was presided by former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

Câmpeanu returned to Romania in early January 1990, right after the Romanian Revolution of December 1989.

He immediately set out to re-found the National Liberal Party (PNL), alongside other former liberals who had been incarcerated by the communist authorities, such as Dan Amedeo Lăzărescu, Sorin Bottez, Ionel Săndulescu, Nicolae Enescu, and Dinu Zamfirescu.

Câmpeanu ran against Ion Iliescu in the 1990 Romanian presidential election, on behalf of the PNL while being at the same time endorsed by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) and the Ecologist Party of Romania (PER) respectively.

He finished second with 10.64%, or 1,529,188 votes.

Subsequently, he retained the honorific title of "1990 Founding President" of the party and was a member in the Central Political Bureau of the PNL up until his death in October 2016.

During the early 1990s, he was the vice-president of the Provisional Council of National Unity (Consiliul Provizoriu de Uniune Națională) in the Parliament of Romania as well as the vice-president of the Senate between 1990 and 1992.

At some point in the 1990s, Câmpeanu also proposed a possible candidacy of King Michael I for president, which was met with harsh criticism on behalf of both his fellow party colleagues and a vast amount of the electorate and civil society.

Also, during his term as PNL president, the National Liberal Party acceded to governance in the relatively technocratic national union government led by National Salvation Front (FSN) Prime Minister Theodor Stolojan between 1991 and 1992.

Additionally, in 1991, Câmpeanu withdrew the PNL from the Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR) mainly because of the CDR's integration of the UDMR and the lack of will on behalf of Câmpeanu to run on common lists along with the Hungarian minority's ethnic party for the Parliament of Romania, as later stated by Câmpeanu himself in an edition of the Milionarii de la miezul nopții (Midnight millionaires; the predecessor of Marius Tucă Show) at some point during the late 1990s.

This resulted in several splinters from the PNL which would eventually join the CDR, most notably PNL-CD led by Niculae Cerveni.

Other PNL splinter groups which decided to remain within the CDR were PNL-AT and PL '93.

After 1993, when he lost the presidency of the PNL to his older colleague Mircea Ionescu-Quintus, Câmpeanu left the party along with a group of followers to establish a splinter political party called PNL-C (Partidul Național Liberal-Câmpeanu) which, after 10 years, would be re-integrated within the main PNL.

From 1995 up until 2003, Radu Câmpeanu was the leader of a splinter liberal party issued from the main PNL which was called National Liberal Party–Câmpeanu (Partidul Național Liberal-Câmpeanu).

Subsequently, Câmpeanu ran for a second time for President on 3 November 1996, when he was supported by PNL-C and the Green Alternative Ecologists' Party (Partidul Alternativa Verde-Ecologiștii) under the official platform National Liberal Ecologist Alliance (Alianța Național Liberală-Ecologistă).

On the occasion of an interview given in March 2010 for the Romanian documentary project "Capete Înfierbântate 13-15 iunie 1990", Câmpeanu stated that he was invited at party meetings and political debates in the Parliament of France by the Union for French Democracy as an ordinary member.

Furthermore, he also stated that he was subsequently invited at political debates in the House of Commons in London, United Kingdom, thereby enjoying the overall civilised atmosphere from there.

He failed to gain enough votes to enter a second round and obtained a very feeble total amount of 0.3% of all ballots cast in the first round, ranking 12th.