Thursday, February 16, 2012

Traian Băsescu

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. He was re-elected president for a second 5-year term in 2009, amidst allegations of electoral fraud that were dismissed by the courts.

In April 2007, Băsescu became the first president in Romania's history to be officially suspended from office, but he was reinstated a month later in a public referendum by a 3–to–1 margin.

Birth and Early Life
Băsescu was born in Basarabi (renamed Murfatlar in 2007), near the port city of Constanţa, the largest Romanian port on the Black Sea. Băsescu's father, Dumitru (d. 2002), was an army officer; his mother's first name is Elena (d. 2010). He has a brother, Mircea (b. 1953). Traian Băsescu and his wife Maria have two daughters, Ioana and Elena.

Professional career
Băsescu graduated from the Naval Institute of Constanţa in 1976 and became a merchant marine deck officer at Navrom, the Romanian state-owned shipping company. Between 1981 and 1987 he served as Captain on Romanian commercial ships. Throughout his career, questions have been raised about Basescu's links to the Securitate, the security services of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. But Basescu has said his links with the former Securitate were minimal, though some contact was obligatory at the time for somebody working abroad in a senior position. In 1984 he was promoted to Captain of the oil tanker Biruinţa, the largest ship of the then Romanian commercial fleet. In 1989, Băsescu moved to Belgium to head the Navrom Agency in Antwerp.

From : www.wikipedia.org