Lia Olguţa Vasilescu (born 18 November 1974) is a Romanian politician, member of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(PSD). She served as mayor of

Craiova Craiova (, also , ) is the largest city in southwestern Romania, List of Romanian cities, the seventh largest city in the country and the capital of Dolj County, situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It i ...

from 2012 to 2017, when she resigned to become Minister of Labor. She was reelected as Mayor of Craiova in 2020 and since then she has been serving as the mayor of Craiova.

Personal life

Her ancestors left Cadrilater in 1940, after the

Treaty of Craiova The Treaty of Craiova (; ) was signed on 7 September 1940 and ratified on 13 September 1940 by the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Romania. Under its terms, Romania had to allow Bulgaria to retake Southern Dobruja, which Romania had gained ...

which transferred the region from

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. She is a graduate of the Elena Cuza National College in her native city. In 1997 she graduated the Faculty of Philology and History of the

University of Craiova The University of Craiova () is a public university located in Craiova, Romania. It was founded in 1947, initially with four institutes, in the Palace of Justice of Craiova. It is the largest university in the historical Oltenia province of Roma ...

(Romanian-Italian language specialization). Between 1997 and 2000, Vasilescu worked for the local

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

''Cuvântul Libertăţii'' from Craiova. She was an editor in the first year and became the Head of the Investigations Department in 1998. In 1999 she was promoted as Deputy Editor. She wrote the books ''Cultura:factor de securitate nationala'' (y) and ''Vilfredo Pareto si contributia lui la dezvoltarea sociologiei moderne'' (). Her former husband is the former

PRO TV PRO TV (, often stylized as PRO•TV since 2017) is a Romanian free-to-air television network, launched on 1 December 1995 as the fourth private TV channel in the country (after TV SOTI, Antena 1, and the now-defunct, but online Tele7ABC). It is ...

reporter Ovidiu Wlassopol and they have a child together. Vasilescu has the black belt (2nd dan) in

Karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

. She is the president of the Romanian subsidiary of WAKO PRO.

Political activity

In 1991 she became a founding member of the

Greater Romania Party The Greater Romania Party (, PRM) is a Romanian far-right political party. Founded in May 1991 by Eugen Barbu and Corneliu Vadim Tudor, it was led by the latter from that point until his death in September 2015. The party is sometimes referred ...

. Vasilescu states that she became a nationalist after her scholarship in Italy. Three years later, Vasilescu was appointed as the Youth Organization of Greater Romania Party. She was the spokesperson of the same party between 2000 and 2004. As a result of the Romanian general election from 26 November 2000 she became a member of the Chamber of Deputies, being at 26 years old the youngest elected person to hold this position until that time. She was re-elected as a member of the Chamber of Deputies at the

2004 Romanian general election General elections were held in Romania on 28 November 2004, with a second round of the presidential elections on 12 December between former Prime Minister Adrian Năstase of the then ruling Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Par ...

, when she was the top candidate on the

party-list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...

of the Greater Romania Party for Dolj County. In 2006 Vasilescu was invited by

George Becali George "Gigi" Becali (; born 25 June 1958) is a Romanian businessman, writer, politician and former convict, mostly known for his ownership of the FCSB football club. Becali was a Member of the European Parliament between June 2009 and Decembe ...

to become the national vice-president of New Generation Party, but she declined the offer. In December 2007, while being the president of the Education Commission from the Chamber of Deputies, Vasilescu left the

after being defamed in the newspaper ''Tricolorul'', owned by

Corneliu Vadim Tudor Corneliu Vadim Tudor (; 28 November 1949 – 14 September 2015), also colloquially known as "Tribunul", was a poet, writer, and journalist who was the leader of the Greater Romania Party () and a Member of the European Parliament. He was a Rom ...

. She joined PSD, being convinced to make this move by its leader

Mircea Geoană Dan Mircea Geoană (; born 14 July 1958) is a Romanian politician and diplomat who served as the Secretary General of NATO, deputy secretary general of NATO between 2019 and 2024. He previously served as president of the Senate of Romania from D ...

. Between 2008 and 2012 she was a member of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, being elected at the

2008 Romanian legislative election Parliamentary elections were held in Romania on 30 November 2008. The Democratic Liberal Party (Romania), Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) won three more seats than PSD in the Chamber of Deputies (Romania), Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of Ro ...

with 62.9% of the votes in the Cetate –

Filiași Filiași () is a town in Dolj County, Oltenia, Romania, on the river Jiu. The town administers six villages: Almăjel, Bâlta, Braniște, Fratoștița, Răcarii de Sus, and Uscăci. Natives * Bianca Curmenț (born 1997), handball player * � ...

single-member district (the highest score for a female MP), surpassing Eugen Georgescu (PDL) – 22.5% and Viorel Călin ( PNL) - 9.4%. In June 2012 she was elected the mayor of

, becoming the first female acting as the mayor of a county capital in Romanian history. She gained 45.6% of the votes, surpassing Antonie Solomon who gained 40.1%. In March 2013 she was elected as the President of the Craiova Organization of PSD. On 20 April 2013 she was elected one of the co-presidents of the Women's Organization of PSD (together with

Ecaterina Andronescu Ecaterina Andronescu (; born 7 April 1948) is a Romanian engineer, professor, and politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), she sat in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies from 1996 to 2008, representing Bucharest, and was a Senato ...

Corina Crețu Corina Crețu (born 24 June 1967) is a Romanian politician and a former European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms. Crețu is a member of the Romanian PRO Romania and Member of the European Parliament (sitting with the Progressive Allian ...

, Gabriela Firea and

Rovana Plumb Rovana Plumb (born 22 June 1960) is a Romanian politician of the Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Party (PSD). She was appointed Minister of Environment and Forests (now Minister of Environment and Climate Change) on 7 May 201 ...

). In January 2017, she resigned as mayor of Craiova in order to take office as Minister of Labor in the cabinet of

Sorin Grindeanu Sorin Mihai Grindeanu (; born 5 December 1973) is a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania from January to June 2017 when he was removed by a motion of no confidence adopted by the Parliament. He served as ad interim Presi ...

References

External links

Personal website

Lia Olguta Vasilescu on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasilescu, Lia Olguta 1974 births Greater Romania Party politicians Living people Mayors of Craiova Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) Members of the Senate of Romania People from Craiova Romanian female karateka Ministers of labor of Romania Romanian newspaper editors 21st-century Romanian women politicians 21st-century Romanian politicians Social Democratic Party (Romania) politicians University of Craiova alumni Romanian women newspaper editors