Radu Stroe (31 August 1949 – 12 June 2025) was a Romanian navigational engineer and politician. An independent, he was once a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL). He was a member 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

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 ...

from 2000 to 2004, and sat in the

Romanian Senate 2012–2016 2008–2012 In December 2008, the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) and the political alliance established between the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Conservative Party (PC) formed a coalition government. 2004–2008 In the ...

from 2004 to 2008, representing the same county. He returned to the Chamber in 2010, representing

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, and started a new term in 2012, sitting for

Ilfov County Ilfov () is the Counties of Romania, county that surrounds Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It used to be largely rural, but, after the fall of communism, many of the county's villages and communes developed into high-income commuter towns, whi ...

. In the

Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu (; born 14 January 1952) is a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania, prime minister of Romania from 2004 to 2008. He was also president of the National Liberal Party (Romania), Na ...

cabinet, he was Minister Delegate for the General Secretariat of the Government from 2006 to 2007. In

Victor Ponta Victor Viorel Ponta (; born 20 September 1972) is a Romanian politician and jurist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from 2012 to 2015. He was president of the Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Party (PSD) from 2010 to ...

's first cabinet, he was Minister Delegate for Administration between August and December 2012, when he was promoted to Interior Minister. He resigned that post in January 2014.

Early years and education

Radu Stroe was born in Osoi,

Iași County Iași County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with the administrative seat at Iași. It is the most populous county in Romania, after the Municipality of Bucharest (which has the same administrative level as that of a cou ...

, and in 1971 graduated from the Civilian Marine Institute in

Constanța Constanța (, , ) is a city in the Dobruja Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Romania. A port city, it is the capital of Constanța County and the country's Cities in Romania, fourth largest city and principal port on the Black ...

, with a speciality in Navigational Engineering. In 1981, he received a law degree from the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

. From 1972 to 1974, Stroe worked as a naval officer and navigational engineer at Navrom Constanța. From 1974 to 1985, he was in the Department of Marine Transport at the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications,Curriculum vitae
at the General Secretariat of the Government; accessed 11 May 2009 working as a principal engineer; he belonged to the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

and was a

Union of Communist Youth The Union of Communist Youth ( Romanian: '; UTC) was the Romanian Communist Party's youth organisation. Like many Young Communist organisations, it was modelled after the Soviet Komsomol. It aimed to cultivate young cadres into the party, as ...

activist within the ministry. From 1985 to 1989, he was a principal engineer at the headquarters of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

-Bucharest Canal.

Political career

Following the 1989 Revolution, Stroe joined the PNL and returned to the Transport Ministry, where, until 1996, he was successively promoted to adjunct general director, general director and adviser to the minister. In 1997–1998, he was adjunct secretary general to the Victor Ciorbea government, while in 1998–2000, he was secretary general in the governments of Radu Vasile and

Mugur Isărescu Constantin Mugur Isărescu (; born 1 August 1949) is the governor of the National Bank of Romania, a position he has been holding since September 1990, with the sole exception of a period of time of one year (22 December 1999 to 28 December 2000 ...

. At the 2000 election, he won a seat in the Chamber, where he was on the permanent bureau during 2001. He moved up to the Senate at the 2004 election, but lost his bid for re-election in 2008. Stroe drew controversy during his first ministerial service (May 2006-April 2007): he was accused of a conflict of interest for serving both as president of the joint parliamentary committee providing oversight to the activities of '' Serviciul Român de Informaţii'', and as a member of the government, something forbidden by parliamentary resolution in 1993. However, he refused to abandon either post. He did resign as minister in January 2007 after being defeated at a PNL congress for the office of vice president for administrative affairs, although the prime minister ignored the resignation and kept him on until a

cabinet shuffle A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the head of state changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parliam ...

that April. The following February, the PNL proposed moving

Teodor Meleșcanu Teodor Viorel Meleșcanu (; born 10 March 1941) is a Romanian politician, diplomat, and jurist. He served as Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Romania (SIE) between 2012 and 2014. He was a three times senator on behalf of the Na ...

from the

Defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

to the

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

ministry and placing Stroe at Defence, but

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Traian Băsescu Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a Romanian politician who served as the president of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian minister of transport on multiple occasions between 1991 and 2000, ...

rejected the idea. From 2009 to 2010, Stroe was project director at an

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

consulting firm. In January 2010, following the resignation of Bogdan Olteanu, Stroe contested the vacant Bucharest constituency at a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

. His opponent was Honorius Prigoana, Jr. of the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL); 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) did not field a candidate, instead supporting Stroe, who was elected with 70% of the vote. Back in the Chamber, he sits on the defence, public order and national security committee, as he did from 2001 to 2008 in both houses of Parliament. Within his party, Stroe was executive secretary, a member of the

Sector 1 Sector 1 is an administrative unit of Bucharest located in the northern part of the city. It contains also the northwestern districts of Băneasa and Pipera. Sector 1 is thought to be the wealthiest sector in Bucharest. Like each of Bucharest sec ...

permanent bureau and a member of the Permanent Central Bureau; he was elected the party's secretary general in March 2009.

Minister of Internal Affairs (2012–2014)

In August 2012, following a

cabinet reshuffle A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the head of state changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parliam ...

, he returned to government, being named Minister Delegate for Administration by Prime Minister

. That December, when he was elected to a new term in the Chamber, he was also named

Interior Minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...

in Ponta's second cabinet. Stroe resigned in early 2014, following the deadly crash of a medical aircraft in the

Apuseni Mountains The Apuseni Mountains (, "Western Mountains"; , "Transylvanian Mountains") are a mountain range in Transylvania, Romania, which belongs to the Western Romanian Carpathians. The highest peak is the Bihor Peak at . The Apuseni Mountains have ab ...

. His ministry was blamed for poor handling of rescue operations, and his departure came following pressure from party colleagues and the media. That April, he was expelled from the PNL for breaching party discipline, and stated he would remain in the Chamber as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Personal life and death

Stroe was married to Victoria Stroe; the couple were later divorced. Dan Badea
"Micile secrete ale lui ... Radu Stroe" ("The Little Secrets of ... Radu Stroe")
hotnews.ro, 18 December 2006; accessed 11 May 2009 He died on 12 June 2025, aged 75, in Gerota Hospital in Bucharest.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stroe, Radu 1949 births 2025 deaths National Liberal Party (Romania) politicians Ministers of interior of Romania Members of the Senate of Romania Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) People from Iași County University of Bucharest alumni Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church