President Traian Basescu turns 60 today

Romanian president Traian Basescu celebrates today his 60th birthday by taking “a day off the office”, according to Agerpres newswire.

The president met on Thursday with MPs of the ruling coalition at the presidential villa Lac 1 to celebrate his anniversary. Some of the gifts received by Traian Basescu on this occasion include a crystal statue, a painting of Anvers Port, a shirt and a Mont Blanc Pen.

The president also toasted a glass of champagne with journalists that were present at the presidential Cotroceni Palace stating that even if they were “right or wrong’, they always attended the events involving the president. In recent years, the president had a conflicting relationship with some of the mass-media representatives, mentioning media moguls as the main source of attacks against him.    

Traian Basescu was born on November 4th in Basarabi, Constanta County and graduated from the Naval Faculty within the Institute of Marine in 1976. Basescu began his naval career as officer on the heavy ships of the commercial fleet NAVROM Constanta, and later became captain for oil vessels, including “Biruinta”, the admiral ship of the Romanian commercial fleet. Between 1987 and 1989, Basescu headed the Navrom Agency in Belgium.     

After the revolution of 1989, when the Ceausescu regime was toppled, Traian Basescu began his political career as minister of Transportation. He was also elected as MP, and held further the Transportation portfolio.  
 
In 2000, Traian Basescu became mayor of Bucharest and in 2004 he won the first presidential mandate under the D.A. Political Alliance, defeating the socialist candidate Adrian Nastase. The Romanian Parliament was able to suspend Traian Basescu in 2007, with 322 MPs voting for this, while only 108 opposing this measure, but was reconfirmed through a referendum held in May.

Read more about

Romanian Olympic Team departs for Paris aboard specially named aircraft “Nadia Comăneci”

read more

On December 6th, Traian Basescu was reelected for a second mandate, defeating the socialist candidate Mircea Geoana, who is currently president of the Romanian Senate.

The second mandate of Traian Basescu will end in 2014.

Traian Basescu is married with Maria Basescu and has two daughters, Ioana and Elena.

Ovidiu Posirca