Ilie Verdeț (10 May 1925 – 20 March 2001) was a Romanian

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

politician who served as Romania’s Prime Minister from 1979 to 1982.

Biography

Born in

Comănești Comănești (; hu, Kománfalva) is a town in Bacău County, Western Moldavia, Romania, with a population of 19,568 as of 2011. It is situated on the river Trotuș, which flows between the Ciuc and the Tarcău mountains; of the course of the ...

Bacău County Bacău County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with its capital city at Bacău. It has one commune, Ghimeș-Făget, in Transylvania. Geography This county has a total area of . In the western part of the county the ...

, and a

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

from age 12, he joined the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...

(PCR) in 1945. After graduating from the

Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies The Bucharest University of Economic Studies ( ro, Academia de Studii Economice din București, abbreviated ''ASE'') is a public university in Bucharest, Romania. Founded in 1913 as the ''Academy of Higher-level Commercial and Industrial Studies'' ...

, he climbed through the party apparatus. By the early 1960s, he was working in the central office of the PCR in Bucharest, as deputy of

Nicolae Ceauşescu Nicolae may refer to: * Nicolae (name), a Romanian name * ''Nicolae'' (novel), a 1997 novel See also *Nicolai (disambiguation) *Nicolao Nicolao is an Italian given name and a surname. It may refer to the following: Given name *Nicolao Civitali ...

, who was in charge of party organization and appointments. After the death of

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian communist politician and electrician. He was the first Communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party ( ...

in March 1965, Verdeț helped Ceaușescu gain the position of

Secretary General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

of the PCR. Soon afterwards, Verdeț was promoted to the Permanent Bureau of the Political Executive Committee of the PCR. He held many political positions, including those of Deputy Prime Minister (1966–1974) and

Prime Minister of Romania The prime minister of Romania ( ro, Prim-ministrul României), officially the prime minister of the Government of Romania ( ro, Prim-ministrul Guvernului României, link=no), is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was s ...

(1979–1982). He was sent by Ceaușescu to solve the

Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 The Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 was the largest protest movement against the Communist regime in Romania before its final days.Deletant, p. 243 It took place 1–3 August 1977 and was centred in the mining town of Lupeni, in Transylvania's J ...

, but was unable to negotiate and was held hostage for two days (which he had later denied). After the fall of Ceaușescu in December 1989, Verdeţ declared himself the head of a provisional government, but it only lasted for about 20 minutes, after which he was pushed aside by

Ion Iliescu Ion Iliescu (; born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and engineer who served as President of Romania from 1989 until 1996 and from 2000 until 2004. Between 1996 and 2000 and also from 2004 to 2008, the year in which he retired, Iliescu ...

, who emerged as the leader of the National Salvation Front (FSN). Subsequently, in 1990, Verdeț founded a political party called

Socialist Party of Labour The Socialist Party of Labour ( ro, Partidul Socialist al Muncii, PSM) was a left wing-nationalist political party in Romania. The party was labelled as neo-communist. It was founded on 16 November 1990. The chairman of the party was Ilie Verde� ...

( ro, Partidul Socialist al Muncii, PSM), which narrowly entered Parliament in the 1992 elections, but in the next elections failed to win any seats. He remained the leader of PSM until the

2000 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2000. Africa * 2000 Ethiopian general election * 2000 Ghanaian presidential election * 1999–2000 Guinea-Bissau general election * 2000–01 Ivorian parliamentary election * 2000 Ivorian presiden ...

, after which he was removed from this position. He died of a heart attack in 2001 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

at the age of 75.

Private life

Verdeț and his wife Reghina married in 1947. They had two daughters: Doina (b. 1948) and Cezarina (b. 1953).

References

External links

* Gabriel Partos
"Obituary: Ilie Verdet"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', April 23, 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Verdet, Ilie Prime Ministers of Romania Deputy Prime Ministers of Romania State Council of Romania Romanian communists People of the Romanian Revolution Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies alumni People from Comănești 1925 births 2001 deaths Burials at Ghencea Cemetery Romanian coal miners