Emil Constantinescu


Emil Constantinescu is a Romanian professor and politician, who served as the president of Romania from 1996 to 2000.
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Constantinescu became a founding member and vice president of the Civic Alliance. In addition, he also served as the acting president of the Democratic Romanian Anti-Totalitarian Forum, the first associative structure of the democratic opposition in post-1989 Romania, which was later transformed into a centre-right political and electoral alliance known as the Romanian Democratic Convention. He subsequently presided over the People's Action party from the early 2000s until it merged into the National Liberal Party in 2008. Nowadays, Constantinescu remains involved in Romanian politics, to a limited extent.

Early life and education

Emil Constantinescu was born on 19 November 1939, in Tighina, Ținutul Nistru, Kingdom of Romania, which today is named Bender, and de facto part of Transnistria. His mother, Maria Georgeta Colceag, was born in Ploiești on 24 April 1916, and, after graduating from high school, was a student at the Bucharest Conservatory in the harp class, but gave up her career in music to follow her husband, Ion Constantinescu. He was originally from Oltenia, he had 8 brothers, and after becoming an agronomist engineer, he was assigned to Bessarabia. The Constantinescu family took refuge in 1943 in Brădetu village, Argeș County where Emil spent his childhood. His sister, Marina, was born in 1942, and in 1946, his brother, Cristian, was born.
From 1953 to 1956, Constantinescu was a student of the "Nicolae Bălcescu" High School in Pitești, and obtained his matriculation diploma on 19 July 1956. In the same year, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest. He obtained a Diploma in Legal Sciences in 1960 and after completing his military internship in Piatra Neamț, he began his work as a trainee judge at the Pitesti Regional Court, economic section. The political climate caused him to give up this position and become a student at the Faculty of Geology – Geography, between 1961 and 1966. He holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Bucharest and a Doctor of Sciences from Duke University.
In 1963, he married Nadia Ileana, a lawyer, who was his colleague at the Faculty of Law in Bucharest. His father died in 1991 and his mother died in 2011.

Professional career

Constantinescu went through all stages of his university career as an assistant and lecturer at the Faculty of Geology. Since 1991 onwards, he has been a professor of Mineralogy at the University of Bucharest. He was also a visiting professor at Duke University in the United States between 1991 and 1992. He was elected vice‑rector and rector of the University of Bucharest; president of the National Council of Rectors from Romania ; member of the Permanent Committee of the Association of European Universities – CRE ; and member of the International Association of University Presidents IAUP.
He is the author of 12 books and over 60 studies in the field of geology, published in prestigious scientific journals in the country and abroad. He is also honorary member and elected member of the Geological and Mineralogical Societies of the United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Greece, and Japan; of the Geographical Society of France and the National Geographic Society in the United States.
Constantinescu has lectured at major universities including University of Tübingen, University of Oxford, Stanford University, Harvard University, Berkeley, Columbia, and Georgetown, and has spoken in cities such as Bloomington, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Prague, Turku, Cairo, and Lublin. His honors include the Romanian Academy Award for contributions to geology ; Palmas Academicas from the Brazilian Academy of Letters ; gold and honorary medals from Comenius University, Charles University, and the University of São Paulo; the Arthur Bertrand Medal from the French Academy of Sciences; and medals from the National Institute of Sciences and Arts of France, the Sorbonne, and the University of Amsterdam.

Political activity (1990–1996)

After the fall of the communist dictatorship, Constantinescu engaged along with other university colleagues and renowned Romanian intellectuals in the effort to re‑democratize Romania, in the defense of fundamental human rights and freedoms as well as in the establishment of civil society. He was one of the personalities who protested against the anti‑democratic actions of the new authorities during a 42‑day rally, between April and May 1990, in Bucharest’s University Square.
File:Cohen Constantinescu.jpg|thumb|right|Constantinescu with the U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen in an official visit at the Pentagon in the United States in July 1998
Following the violent events of June 1990, when miners—at the call of then president Ion Iliescu—entered Bucharest, he founded, together with colleagues, professors, and students, the association *Solidaritatea Universitară*. He was also a founding member and vice‑president of the Civic Alliance, the most important non‑governmental organization in the country, and president of the Civic Academy. These associations joined the opposition democratic parties and together formed the Romanian Democratic Convention in 1991. At the proposal of the Academic Solidarity, supported by the Civic Alliance, Constantinescu was designated the CDR candidate in the presidential elections of 1992. He entered the second round and obtained 38 % of the votes in the confrontation with then incumbent president Ion Iliescu, who was supported by the Democratic National Salvation Front. After this first important political experience, the CDR elected in 1992 its president and sole candidate for the presidential elections of 1996. He continued to act to strengthen the democratic opposition throughout this period from 1992 until 1996, alongside other notable CDR political leaders.

Presidency (1996–2000)

In 1996, Constantinescu competed once again for the presidency as the CDR's candidate and managed to defeat Iliescu in the second round, securing a victory by a margin of roughly 10%. CDR's success in the 1996 general election marked the first peaceful transition of power in post-1989 Romania. On the day he took office, he suspended his membership in the PNȚ-CD, as the Constitution precludes a president holding formal membership of a political party during his term.
Throughout his sole four-year term, Constantinescu struggled with the ineffective implementation of the processes of privatization, which, bogged down by excessive bureaucracy, increased unemployment and poverty in the short term. After another two Mineriads which took place in 1999, culminating with the arrest of Miron Cozma, the remainder of his term suffered a political crisis between the majority parties that, at the time, formed the governing coalition. The country was further damaged by a drought in 2000. At the end of his term in 2000, he decided not to run for re-election, stating that the system had defeated him.
One of the last gestures he made as president of Romania was the pardon of Ion Coman, the man who had led the repression of the 1989 revolution in Timișoara.

Post-presidency (2000–present)

Constantinescu's presidency along with CDR's governance were marred by an economic recession. Despite this, his presidency has been eventually credited with putting an end to the Mineriads, a reform of the banking system as well as with the attraction of the first major foreign investments in Romania after 1989. With dashed expectations of an immediate improvement in daily life, Romanians exhibited strong disillusionment with the major parties and politicians of the CDR at the end of the 1996–2000 legislature, with the Greater Romania Party subsequently gaining the second place in the 2000 legislative election.
A disenchanted Constantinescu, who lost popularity and had failed to fulfil his reformist agenda announced on 17 July 2000 that he would not run for a second term. He temporarily withdrew from political life at the end of his term in November 2000. Constantinescu's direction in foreign affairs continued however after the comeback of Ion Iliescu in 2000. Eventually, Romania joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union three years later, in 2007, alongside Bulgaria.
Constantinescu returned to the political scene in 2002 as head of the People's Action party, which subsequently merged within the National Liberal Party in 2008.
Constantinescu had occasionally criticized the policies of the 2004–2014 president, Traian Băsescu, accusing him of authoritarian tendencies, and supported Crin Antonescu in the first round of the 2009 presidential elections.
Constantinescu remains heavily involved in politics through working for many NGOs, both in Romania and internationally. He is the current president of the Association of Citizenship Education, of the Romanian Foundation for Democracy and also the founding president of the Institute for Regional Cooperation and Conflict Prevention.
A frequent speaker at the Oslo Freedom Forum, in 2010 he presented the OFF with a presidential medal. He is also a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
In July 2023, Constantinescu criticised Romanian lawmakers for a lack of vision and long-term strategy for the country's future.
As of 2025, President Emil Constantinescu remains the oldest living president of Romania, following the death of former President Ion Iliescu in August 2025.

Honours and awards

National honours