Mircea Geoană: The man behind the NATO suit

Since he decided to run for the presidency of Romania over a year ago, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană has been traveling across Romania like a soldier without an army, determined to conquer the highest office in the state as an independent candidate. From the beginning, Geoană’s major problem has been that he plays unfairly. He conducts his electoral campaign in Romania wearing the suit of a high-ranking NATO official, a typical Romanian trick accepted with suspicious ease at the headquarters in Brussels.

Geoană fully exploits the image (and resources) of the Alliance to erase the long years spent in Romanian politics and pretend to be something entirely different. The younger generation even believes that Geoană, otherwise a talented diplomat, is different from [Marcel] Ciolacu, [Nicolae] Ciucă, [George] Simion, [Elena] Lasconi, or whoever you want. He speaks well, in long and complicated sentences, full of commonplaces and devoid of content. As a well-schooled and experienced diplomat, he says things excellently, but says very little. By contrast, Mircea Geoană still seems like the only reasonable option. The younger ones know little about Mircea Geoană’s political past. Those who know have forgotten essential details over time.

Mircea Geoană had planned to resign from his position as NATO Deputy Secretary General immediately after the Washington summit if the presidential elections were to be held in September, and to enter the electoral race. After the elections were set for November 24 and December 8, Geoană revised his strategy and intends to complete his NATO mandate until October.

But the position does not prevent him from pursuing his electoral campaign in the country. Recently, he was in Colonești, a village in Olt County, where he is an honorary citizen. Present at the village’s celebration days, Geoană was booed when he wanted to speak on stage, according to the local press. Geoană has also intensified his online appearances. He was invited to George Buhnici’s podcast and gave an interview with Fanatik.

At this moment, a little time travel is useful. If he is running incognito, who is hiding behind the uniform? What did Mircea Geoană do in Romanian politics before arriving at NATO five years ago? It is enough to slightly open the door of the memory closet. Not a skeleton falls out, but an entire cemetery.

Back in time. Did you know that Mircea Geoană…?

• Was the longest-serving leader of the PSD (Social Democratic Party). Far from the image of an independent that he wants to project today, Geoană led the largest party in Romania from April 2005 until February 2010.
• Was excluded from the PSD twice. A unique performance in Romanian politics. After losing the presidential elections in 2009, Mircea Geoană also lost the party leadership, and in 2011, amid a conflict with President Victor Ponta, he was excluded by the National Executive Committee, notes Adevărul.ro in a candidate profile.
• Thanked [Emil] Constantinescu for freeing Romania from the PSD. Ten years before becoming the PSD leader, Mircea Geoană sent a letter in 1996 to former President Emil Constantinescu, thanking him for freeing Romania from Ion Iliescu and the PSD. Geoană, then ambassador in Washington, aimed with this letter to keep his position in the new regime. He called Iliescu „the cancer of Romanian democracy” and declared himself happy that „we got rid of the ghosts of the communist past”. (Details)
• Lost two major electoral competitions: the 2004 Bucharest mayoral race to Traian Băsescu and the 2009 presidential election, also to Traian Băsescu. In 2004, Geoană got 29% while Băsescu won Bucharest with 60%, the percentage difference being attributed to other candidates. He lost the presidential elections by a margin of only 0.33%.
• Founded a party together with Marian Vanghelie, later investigated for the largest bribe in DNA’s (National Anticorruption Directorate) history: 30 million euros. Geoană and Vanghelie founded the Romania Noastră party in 2015.
• Is probably the only NATO leader with assets seized. During the trial in which Marian Vanghelie was judged for corruption, Geoană revealed that he received three expensive watches worth approximately 100,000 euros from the former mayor of Sector 5. According to investigators, the three luxury watches were purchased by Marian Vanghelie from a bribe of several tens of millions of euros. Geoană admitted that he received the expensive watches from Marian Vanghelie but specified that no favor was requested in return. The watches received by Geoană and other goods belonging to Vanghelie were seized by the Court of Appeal magistrates in May 2022. At that time, Geoană was already NATO Deputy Secretary General. (Source)
• Is probably the only party leader filmed taking money, five thousand euros for an eligible spot on the parliamentary lists in 2008. Ana Birchall denied it was about her: „Any other speculation on this subject is tendentious and not in line with reality. I state that all amounts donated to PSD were legally registered and published in the Official Monitor no. 215 of April 2009,” Birchall wrote after the scandal surfaced.
• Had a secret visit to Moscow. In November 2009, we revealed that Mircea Geoană, then PSD leader and presidential candidate, made a private visit to Moscow on April 27, 2009, where he secretly met with one of President Medvedev’s advisors. The meeting was allegedly arranged by Boris Golovin, a businessman with interests in the energy sector in Romania, whom the press wrote was a former GRU officer. (See more on Hotnews.ro)
• Appears in the Wikileaks cables: „great experience in foreign policy, but little substance”. The subject of the cable consulted by HotNews.ro and published in March 2011: „Romanian Presidential Elections: Favorite Candidate Mircea Geoană – with great experience in foreign policy, but little substance”. „An even bigger mystery is how Geoană approaches Russia. Geoană publicly criticized Băsescu for a too tough stance towards Moscow, arguing that the Romanian Government should not allow foreign policy disputes on certain subjects to impede dialogue on other issues. Although Geoană faced criticism after the disclosure of two secret visits to Moscow in 2009, his campaign was not affected by the subject. The most recently revealed trip involved Geoană going to Moscow on the oligarch Sorin Ovidiu Vântu’s plane,” a classified cable sent by the US Embassy in Bucharest in 2009 stated.
• Visited media mogul Sorin Ovidiu Vântu, later convicted in the case of the National Investment Fund (FNI) collapse. On December 3, 2009, the day before the final debate between Mircea Geoană and Traian Băsescu, Hotnews.ro revealed that Geoană met with Sorin Ovidiu Vântu shortly after midnight. Later, it was found that the images sent to the HotNews.ro editorial office were made by a paparazzo hired by Traian Băsescu’s team.
• Said, „We don’t know how many we are in the first place”. In January 2007, when he was the PSD president, Mircea Geoană was asked by a journalist: „Do you think there are too many intelligence officers in Romania?” Mircea Geoană’s response was: „We don’t know how many we are, in the first place”. Geoană’s statement came amid a proposal launched by the head of the Social Democrats, who argued that all intelligence services should be controlled by parliament.
• Was called „the dimwit” by former President Ion Iliescu. In March 2005, Adevărul noted: <<To the astonishment of the audience, at one point, when discussing a subject related to the PSD’s parliamentary situation, Ion Iliescu said that „Mircea Geoană acted like a dimwit between the two rounds of the presidential election when he went around the country and said that the UDMR would be alongside the PSD in government”. Ion Iliescu considered that these statements by Mircea Geoană led to the loss of a significant number of votes in Transylvania, which ultimately meant the loss of the presidential elections by Adrian Năstase.>>
• Lived for years in a state protocol house. Mircea Geoană was accused for several years of unjustifiably living in a state protocol house of the Autonomous Administration „Administration of State Protocol Patrimony” (RA-APPS) on Cucu Starostescu Street. These accusations generated controversies and criticisms, as protocol residences are normally intended for high-ranking officials during their mandate, and using them after the end of the mandate is considered illegal. This situation raised questions about the use of state resources and the privileges granted to former dignitaries. Geoană claimed in 2015 that he pays 3000 euros monthly rent for the state-owned property, the market price for 8 rooms and 246 square meters in the center of the Capital.
• Is accused of plagiarism. Mircea Geoană allegedly plagiarized by translating, without any attribution and without quotation marks, dozens of pages from the annual reports presented to the US Congress by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, according to an investigation signed by Emilia Șercan in PressOne.

These highlights form just part of Geoană’s complex political resume, which voters should consider as he aims for the presidency. When he sheds his NATO coat, the politician described above will step forward if he proceeds with his still uncertain candidacy.