Corneliu Vadim Tudor, Romania’s most influential extremist politician, dies at age 65

Romanian politician Corneliu Vadim Tudor, founder of the Romania Mare (Great Romania) Party, and one of the most influential political figures in the years after the Romanian Revolution, died on Monday, September 14, at age 65. Vadim Tudor, who was also a poet and a publicist, was best known for his extremist political views. In 1990, he founded the Romania Mare magazine and, later on, Tricolorul, which he often used for personal attacks on his political enemies and other public figures. He also founded the Great Romania Party (PRM) in the early 90s, based on a nationalistic propaganda. His tough political rhetoric and outbursts brought him many supporters during a complicated period for Romania. He preached that Romania could only be ruled with a machine gun and that if his party were elected to lead Romania he would enforce public executions on stadiums. Although his promises were unrealistic, extremist, and sometimes downright crazy, he and his party were very popular. This was also partly due to his rhetoric against the Magyar minority in Romania. In 1992 he was elected for a senator’s in Romania’s Parliament. He had several mandates. He also run in the presidential elections four times, and one time he was close to win. In 2000, he got 3.18 million votes in the first round and lost to social democrat leader Ion Iliescu in the second round. In 2009, Vadim Tudor was elected for a seat in the European Parliament. His popularity fell, however, in recent years. In 2013, his own party voted him off as president, but then decided to reinstate him. editor@romania-insider.com