Former Romanian tourism minister Elena Udrea turns to religion, wants to open Happiness Institute

Former Romanian tourism minister Elena Udrea has decided to leave politics and not run for another MP seat in the parliamentary elections. Instead, she has started to study pastoral counseling and says she wants to help people by opening a Happiness Institute, she wrote on Facebook. Elena Udrea, 42, used to be one of the most powerful women in Romania during Traian Basescu’s 10 years as President. However, in recent years she held the headlines due to the corruption investigations targeting her. Udrea was even arrested in February 2015 in a corruption case related to overpriced IT license purchases, also known as the “Microsoft file”. She spent more than two months in prison. In recent months, Elena Udrea has been posting on Facebook messages about the pursuit of happiness and about prayers and the role of religion and faith in people’s lives, alongside photos of her trips in various places in Romania. She recently revealed that she would attend a master course at the Faculty of Theology of the Babes Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, where she would study pastoral counseling and psychosocial assistance. “I wish to personally help those who have any kind of problems to overcome them through faith and religious practice combined with traditional psychological therapies,” Udrea wrote on Facebook. “From my personal experience in the last one and a half years, I believe that religious resources such as prayer, confession, Bible readings, the presence in religious community life and church, and fasting can help people reach happiness, whatever happiness means for anyone: health, prosperity, professional success, love, and others,” Udrea explained. She plans to open a nonprofit association called the Happiness Institute, where she will provide counseling together with priests, psychologists, and personal coaches. “A people can be saved through faith and positive thinking. If its leaders think positive and have faith themselves, they can inspire and help people,” Udrea added. Elena Udrea’s rise to power was closely related to that of former President Traian Basescu. She was the President’s chief of staff from February to October 2005. In 2008, she was elected for a deputy seat in Romania’s Parliament, running for the Liberal Democrat Party (PDL). In December 2008 she was appointed tourism minister in Emil Boc’s cabinet, and in December 2009 she became the regional development and tourism minister, a position she held until February 2012. In January 2014, Elena Udrea left PDL and joined the Popular Movement Party (PMP), a new party supported by Traian Basescu (he is now the leader of PMP). She ran for President in November 2014 and came out fourth, with 5.2% of the votes. At the end of 2014, the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) officially started investigating Elena Udrea in several corruption cases.