CES-EUC Conversations on Europe - From Revolution to Reintegration: Romania's Return to Europe

This public lecture will be given by Gheorghe Ciuhandu, mayor of Timisoara, Romania. Co-sponsored by Center for European Studies-European Union Center and Center for Russian and East European Studies.

Gheorghe Ciuhandu is rare among Romanian politicians. Born into a modest family of teachers who followed and respected the traditions of their forbearers, he never belonged to the Communist Party and refused to become a member. After the bloody revolution in December 1989, he joined the National Peasant Christian-Democratic Party, which had been banned since the communists came to power in 1947, and was invited to be part of the first post-revolutionary governing committees. By the end of 1990, he joined the opposition in Timisoara; in 2004, he became president of the National Peasant Christian Democratic-Party. First elected mayor of Timisoara in 1996, Gheorghe Ciuhandu began working on the city's economic revival and improvements to its infrastructure. Following reelection as mayor in 2004, he was nominated by his party as their presidential candidate. After losing the election, he returned to Timisoara to pave the way to the EU, culminating in Romania's entry in 2007.