Ion Rațiu (; 6 June 1917 – 17 January 2000) was a Romanian lawyer, diplomat, journalist, businessman, writer, and politician. In addition, he was the official presidential candidate of the

Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party The Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (, PNȚCD) is an agrarianism, agrarian and Christian democracy, Christian democratic list of political parties in Romania, political party in Romania. It claims to be the rightful successor of t ...

(PNȚCD) in the 1990 Romanian presidential election in which he subsequently finished third, behind the

post-communist Post-communism is the period of political and economic transformation or transition in post-Soviet states and other formerly communist states located in Central-Eastern Europe and parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, in which new governments ...

Ion Iliescu Ion Iliescu (; born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and engineer who served as the second 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, ...

of the National Salvation Front (FSN) and

Radu Câmpeanu Radu-Anton Câmpeanu (; 28 February 1922 – 19 October 2016) was a Romanian politician who was also jurist and economist by profession, after graduating from the University of Bucharest (UB) in November 1945, specializing in constitutional righ ...

of the National Liberal Party (PNL), with only 617,007 votes (or 4.29%). Subsequently, on more than one occasion, he was named by major newspapers and online publications in Romania as "the best president Romania never had". During his years spent in exile, Rațiu met and discussed with important political figures of the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

such as former

British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pri ...

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

(former leader of the British Conservative Party), former

American President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forc ...

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

(of the American Democratic Party) as well as Republican

Senate Majority Leader The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and people of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as chief spokespersons for their respective political parties, holding the ...

Bob Dole Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Party leaders of the United States Senate, Republican Leader of th ...

(also former presidential candidate on behalf of the Republican Party in the

1996 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democratic Party (United States), Democratic President Bill Clinton and his running mate, incumbent Democratic Vice Presi ...

). Although he wasn't the winner of the 1990 Romanian presidential election, Ion Rațiu successfully managed to remain in a significant part of the Romanian collective mindset as one of the most influential politicians of the 1990s, being admired and publicly revered by generations of subsequent Romanian politicians, some of whom had previously claimed to have even voted for him back in 1990, most notably, at least reportedly according to one of his books, the

5th Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth Avenue * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a cont ...

and former

President of Romania The president of Romania () is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two ter ...

, Klaus Werner Iohannis.

Biography

Early life and academic studies

Born in

Turda Turda (; , ; ; ) is a Municipiu, city in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in the southeastern part of the county, from the county seat, Cluj-Napoca, to which it is connected by the European route E81, and from nearby Câmpia ...

Cluj County Cluj County () is a county () of Romania, in Transylvania. Its seat is Cluj-Napoca. Name In Hungarian language, Hungarian it is known as ''Kolozs megye''. Under the Kingdom of Hungary, a county with an identical name (Kolozs County, ) existed s ...

, Romania, Ion Rațiu was the son of Dr. Augustin Rațiu, and a great-grand-nephew of Dr. , the leader of the

Transylvanian Memorandum The ''Transylvanian Memorandum'' () was a petition sent in 1892 by the leaders of the Romanians of Transylvania to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor-King Franz Joseph, asking for equal ethnic rights with the Hungarians, and demanding an end to perse ...

. His grandmother. Eugenia Turcu, was the daughter of Romanian activist and journalist

Ion Codru-Drăgușanu Ion Codru-Drăgușanu (November 9, 1818–October 26, 1884) was an Austro-Hungarian ethnic Romanian prose writer. He was born in Drăguș, Brașov County, in the Transylvania region. His parents were Adam Plăiaș Codru or Adam al lui German ...

. He attended school in Turda and from 1928 to 1933 the George Barițiu High School in

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

, and in 1938 he earned a law degree from King Ferdinand I University in Cluj. In 1940, Rațiu was named Counsellor at the Romanian Legation in London, under Minister Viorel V. Tilea. In September 1940,

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Carol II Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930, until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. As the eldest son of Ferdinand I of Romania, King Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I, ...

fled Romania and this led to the formation of the

National Legionary State The National Legionary State () was a Totalitarianism, totalitarian Fascism, fascist regime which governed Kingdom of Romania, Romania for five months, from 14 September 1940 until its official dissolution on 14 February 1941. The regime was led ...

. As a result, Rațiu resigned from the Foreign Service, and requested political asylum in the United Kingdom. In 1943, Rațiu earned an economics degree from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. In 1945, Rațiu married Elisabeth Pilkington, the daughter of colonel Guy Pilkington; the couple had two children, Indrei and Nicolae.

Life in exile in the United Kingdom after World War II

Rațiu remained in exile in London after the Communist Party (PCR) came to power in Romania in 1947. From the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he joined the fight against

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...

of any political colour, helping to organize the Central European Student and Youth Society (or Central East European Students for a New Society). In 1961, he started publishing the Free Romanian Press, a weekly news bulletin, in association with FCI, Holland Road, London, directed by another prominent exile,

Josef Josten Josef Josten (25 March 1913 29 November 1985) was an exiled Czech journalist, publisher and campaigner. His early life in Czechoslovakia included two escapes, firstly from military occupation and secondly after a political coup. In his subsequen ...

. He also contributed regularly to the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Romanian service,

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

, and

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

. In 1957, Rațiu published his critique of

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

attitudes towards the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and communism, ‘Policy for the West’. In 1975, the year he published ''Contemporary Romania'', he decided to devote all his energy to the pursuit of a free Romania. He played a key role in the setting up of the World Union of Free Romanians (), of which he was elected president at its first congress in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

(1984). Shortly after this, he started publishing ''The Free Romanian''/''Românul liber'', a monthly newspaper in English and Romanian.

Political activity in post-1989 Romania

Romanian presidential election 1990 - Ratiu

After he returned to Romania in January 1990, he helped to re-establish the

National Peasants' Party The National Peasants' Party (also known as the National Peasant Party or National Farmers' Party; , or ''Partidul Național-Țărănist'', PNȚ) was an Agrarianism, agrarian political party in the Kingdom of Romania. It was formed in 1926 throu ...

(PNȚ), serving as its vice-president. Shortly thereafter, he unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1990 election on behalf of the PNȚCD while also being endorsed by the PSDR; subsequently, he was elected deputy of the

Romanian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies () is the lower house in Romania's Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Romania, parliament. It has 312 regular seats to which Chamber of Deputies, deputies are elected by direct popular vote using party-list proportiona ...

for

in both 1990 and

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, and then Arad, in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. He also served as vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies as well as ambassador and negotiator for Romania's integration in

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

's structures. In 1991, he re-founded the newspaper ''

Cotidianul The logo used between 2003 and 2007 ''Cotidianul'' (meaning ''The Daily'' in English) is a Romanian-language newspaper published in Bucharest, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern E ...

''. Paraphrasing

Evelyn Beatrice Hall Evelyn Beatrice Hall (28 September 1868 – 13 April 1956),Sources which date Hall's death to 1919, such aFred R. Shapiro's ''The Yale Book of Quotations'' are in error. The confusion may have arisen because Hall published no further written wor ...

, Rațiu offered in a televised debate in 1990 the most elegant definition of democracy: "I will fight until my last drop of blood so you have the right not to agree with me!" After a short illness, Rațiu died in London on 17 January 2000, surrounded by his family. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried in his Transylvanian hometown,

Publications

Ion Rațiu published a series of self-biographical literary volumes known as 'Jurnalul' in Romanian. The respective literary volumes (or journals), narrate and detail his life in exile in the United Kingdom as well as his comeback in post-1989 Romania and the story of his 1990 presidential candidacy respectively. In addition, Ion Rațiu also published other literary volumes such as the 'Note zilnice' series (i.e. 'Daily notes') throughout the 1990s, revolving around national politics and

geopolitics Geopolitics () is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. Geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of State (polity), states: ''de fac ...

. Those volumes were published through the Univers (i.e. Universe) Romanian publishing house.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Notes

References

External links

*
Short biography
on the "Rațiu Center for Democracy" website *
Rațiu Family Foundation Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ratiu, Ioan 1917 births 2000 deaths People from Turda Romanian Greek-Catholics Romanian newspaper editors Romanian newspaper founders English people of Romanian descent Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) Candidates for President of Romania Babeș-Bolyai University alumni Romanian expatriates in England Romanian democracy activists Romanian defectors Romanian dissidents Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge 20th-century Romanian politicians