Cătălin Cherecheș (born July 7, 1978) is a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

politician, who was the mayor of

Baia Mare Baia Mare ( , ; ; ; ) is a Municipiu, city along the Săsar, Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramureș, a subregion of Transylvania. It is situated about from Buchare ...

from May 8, 2011 and November 29, 2023. Cherecheș was charged with corruption in 2016, and arrested in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in November 2023. He began serving his prison sentence in

Aiud Prison Aiud Prison is a prison complex in Aiud, Alba County, located in central Transylvania, Romania. It is infamous for the treatment of its political inmates, especially during World War II under the rule of Ion Antonescu, and later under the Communi ...

in Romania in March 2024.

Biography

Between 2005 and 2007, Cherecheș was the vice president and spokesperson of the

Maramureș County Maramureș County () is a county (județ) in Romania, in the Maramureș region. The county seat is Baia Mare. Name In Hungarian language, Hungarian it is known as ''Máramaros megye'', in Ukrainian language, Ukrainian as Мараморо́щ ...

organization 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 ...

. Cherecheș was elected in 2008 to the Chamber of Deputies on the

. He resigned the party in February 2010, becoming an independent member of Parliament and in May 2010 joined the National Liberal Party. In May 2011, following the criminal conviction of mayor

Cristian Anghel Cristian is the Romanian, Spanish and Italian form of the male given name Christian. In Romanian, it is also a surname. Cristian may refer to: People * Cristian (footballer, born 1994), Brazilian footballer * Cristian Adomniței (born 1975), Ro ...

, a by-election was held in Baia Mare. Cherecheș was named candidate of the

Social Liberal Union The Social Liberal Union (, USL) was a grand coalition of several political parties which was active in Romania during the early to mid 2010s. The alliance contained two major political parties, one major centre-left and one centre-right, more sp ...

. He won the elections from the first round, getting 18,298 votes (51,66%). Following his election, he resigned from the Parliament. In 2011, the local administration built a tall wall between the road Strada Horea and an area of social housing that houses 1,000 Roma people into one-room apartments, some without water or electricity. According to Cherecheș, this wall was designed to "prevent traffic accidents", while some civic organizations said it amounted to a " Roma wall" and "institutionalized racism". Later in 2011, the national anti-discrimination council fined Cherecheș for building the wall and ordered it to be pulled down. During the 2012 Romanian local elections, again as the candidate of the Social Liberal Union, he was re-elected mayor of Baia Mare, receiving 44,239 votes (86.03%), far ahead of Democratic Liberal candidate Ștefan Pop, who received only 2,785 votes. In September 2013, Cherecheș joined the

National Union for the Progress of Romania The Party for the Homeland, Military and Police in Reserve and Retirement (, PPMPRR), sometimes shortened to the Party for the Homeland, Military and Police (, PPMP), and formerly known as the National Union for the Progress of Romania (, UNPR) is ...

. On May 20, 2016, Cherecheș was charged with corruption. Nevertheless, on June 5, 2016 Cherecheș ran as a candidate of the local

Coalition for Baia Mare The Coalition for Baia Mare (, CBM) was a Romanian local electoral alliance formed to contest the 2016 Romanian local elections, 2016 local elections in the municipality of Baia Mare, the seat of Maramureș County. It supported mayor of Baia Mare C ...

and was re-elected mayor while detained with 70.28% of the votes counted, according to the partial election results, a first in Romanian politics. Shortly before being sentenced, Cherecheș fled to

in November 2023, but was caught just four days later. Cherecheș awaited extradition until March 2024, when he began serving his prison sentence in

, back in Romania. As of September 2024, he remains incarcerated at Aiud Prison, and is eligible for

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

in August 2026.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chereches, Catalin 1978 births People from Baia Mare Social Democratic Party (Romania) politicians Mayors of places in Romania Living people National Union for the Progress of Romania politicians National Liberal Party (Romania) politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) Fugitives wanted by Romania Romanian politicians convicted of corruption