Romania’s President names 19 new ambassadors, sends his chief of staff to the UK

Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis has appointed new ambassadors to 19 countries, including Hungary, Moldova, UK, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. One of the most important nominations is that of Dan Mihalache, the President’s chief of staff, as Romania’s Ambassador to the UK. Mihalache used to be one of Iohannis’ closest advisors after he became president, which led former Prime Minister Victor Ponta to say that he was “the real president”. Sorin-Dan Mihalache was a member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and an advisor to former social democrat Prime Minister Adrian Nastase. He was also a deputy in Romania’s Parliament and a member of the European Parliament. He joined the National Liberal Party (PNL) in 2009 and was responsible of Klaus Iohannis’ presidential campaign in 2014. Romanian diplomat Marius Lazurca will be the new ambassador to Hungary. He was previously ambassador to the Vatican and to the Republic of Moldova. Daniel Ioniţă, a state secretary within the Foreign Affairs Minister and former ambassador to Norway, will go to Chisinau as Romania’s new ambassador to Moldova. George Gabriel Bologan, Romania’s general consul in Milano, will be the new ambassador to Italy, Malta and San Marino, and Gabriela Dancău, the former consul in Lyon, was appointed ambassador to Spain. Both Italy and Spain have big Romanian communities. The other appointed ambassadors are: Carmen Liliana Burlacu – ambassador to Czech Republic Ioana Bivolaru – ambassador to Portugal Brânduşa Ioana Predescu – ambassador to the Netherlands Constantin Mihail Grigorie – ambassador to Croatia Ion Vîlcu – ambassador to Mexico Ion Gâlea – ambassador to Bulgaria Mihai Alexandru Grădinar – Ambassador to Denmark and Iceland Răzvan Rotundu – ambassador to Finland Daniela Mihaela Cămărăşan – ambassador to Estonia Anton Niculescu – ambassador to Slovenia Dana Manuela Constantinescu – ambassador to Bosnia and Hercegovina Cristian-Leon Ţurcanu – ambassador to Ukraine Daniela Brânduşa Băzăvan – ambassador to Morocco Radu Octavian Dobre – ambassador to India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh Journalist appointed Romania’s ambassador to France New Romanian ambassadors to US, UK, Germany and Austria editor@romania-insider.com (Photo source: Dan Mihalache on Facebook)