Cristian Popescu Piedone

Cristian Popescu Piedone
Mayor of Sector 5
In office
27 October 2020 – 12 May 2022 and the mandate restart 22 june 2023
Mayor of Sector 4
In office
15 June 2008 – 4 November 2015
Personal details
Born (1963-02-15) 15 February 1963 (age 61)
Bucharest, Romania
Political partySocial Liberal Humanist Party (PUSL)
Other political
affiliations		Party of Social Democracy in Romania

Social Democratic Party
Alliance for Romania
National Democratic Bloc
Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party
Conservative Party
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats

National Union for the Progress of Romania
ChildrenVlad Popescu and Ana Maria
Alma materUniversity of Petroșani

Cristian Victor Popescu Piedone (born 15 February 1963) is a Romanian politician who served as mayor of Bucharest's Sector 4 from 2008 until 4 November 2015, when he resigned following the Colectiv nightclub fire and the subsequent 2015 Romanian protests.

Biography

Early life

Piedone was born in Bucharest, but he spent his early years in Cairo, due to the fact that his parents were working at the Romanian Embassy in Egypt.[1] He returned to Romania when he was 7 years old, in order to start going to school. He dropped out after he finished the 8th grade.[2]

Marian Vanghelie declared that, in the 1980s, Piedone was the head of the House of Orders, which delivered food for the communist elite: the nomenklatura, party officials and Securitate officers. He also claimed that Piedone was caught by the police stealing and was arrested, threatening to commit suicide, so Vanghelie and Piedone's father intervened to have him set free.[3]

Before the Romanian Revolution, Cristian Popescu was the head waiter at a seaside restaurant.[4] In 1990, he opened his own restaurant named Restaurantul Ciocârlia ("Nightingale Restaurant") on the Dâmbovița River quay in Bucharest.[4] Popescu joined the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) in 1994 after the youth wing of the party started congregating in his restaurant.[4]

He began studying at the Dimitre Gusti High School in Bucharest in 1991, at the age of 28, graduating four years later.[5] He later continued his studies at the University of Petroșani, which he graduated in 2002.[5]

Local councilor

In 2000, he was elected a member of the General Council of Bucharest on the lists of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), becoming also an inspector at the Sector 6 city hall.[4] In 2004, he was elected councillor for Bucharest's Sector 6.

He subsequently quit the Social Democrats and joined the Alliance for Romania[6] and then Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD), then the National Democratic Bloc (BND), a small party created by trade unionists of Blocul Național Sindical ("National Union Bloc")[7] and allied with Greater Romania Party (PRM) and finally joined the Conservative Party (PC).[8]

Following the election of Bucharest Mayor Traian Băsescu as President of Romania, a by-election was held to replace the now-vacant function. Popescu was a candidate representing the National Democratic Bloc, gaining 37,985 votes, or 8.71%.[9]

In 2007, he obtained his driving license in Pitești, Argeș County after temporarily moving his residence to Priboieni.[10] Following a fraud and corruption investigation, the authorities decided to cancel his driving license, together with hundreds other licenses.[10] Journalists noted that moving his domicile without resigning from his function as member of the local council is illegal.[11] Additionally, while a resident in Priboieni, he registered a Cadillac in Bucharest, for which he was criminally prosecuted.[11]

Popescu Piedone founded an NGO named Asociația pentru Protecția Cetățeanului ("Association for the Protection of the Citizen"),[12] which drew criticism after receiving donations from the State Lottery, a state-owned company managed by a fellow Conservative Party member.[8]

His assumed moniker, Piedone (Italian for "bigfoot") is taken from the Spaghetti Western character by that name starring Bud Spencer. In 2006, Popescu legally changed his name to include Piedone.

Mayor of Bucharest's sectors 4 and 5

The Conservative Party's candidate for mayor in the 2008 in Sector 4, Popescu Piedone won the elections against PDL's Radu Silaghi.[13]

Before the 2012 Romanian local election, Popescu negotiated with the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR) to be their candidate.[14] He resigned in September 2011 from being the prime-vice-president of the Conservative Party and president of its Bucharest branch.[15] In October 2012, he announced that he would run on the Conservative Party ticket,[14] but the following month, he announced that he would run on the UNPR side.[16] Romanian MP Elena Udrea announced that Popescu Piedone would be the coordinator of the UNPR–PDL campaign.[17] A few months later, in March 2012, Piedone decided to run on a Social Liberal Union (USL) ticket.[18]

Popescu Piedone was reelected in the June 2012 elections, gaining 80.36% of the votes in Sector 4.[19]

Piedone speaking at a rally in 2014

His Conservative Party merged with the Liberal Reformist Party (PLR) to form the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) and in July 2015, Popescu Piedone resigned frim ALDE, joining UNPR, as he claimed having "a beautiful friendship" with its leader, Gabriel Oprea.[20] In September 2015, he announced that he would run again for Sector 4 mayorship from the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR).[21]

A criminal complaint by the Save Bucharest Association related to the demolition of a building belonging to a protected heritage area was admitted by the Sector 4 court, with Piedone being officially criminally charged in August 2015.[22] The case involves a city house owned by the Samurcășești Monastery from outside Bucharest, which was demolished in order to be replaced by a 5-storey building constructed by the monastery in association with a real estate investor.[22]

On 30 October 2015, the Colectiv nightclub fire killed dozens of people. Since the nightclub had been authorized by mayor Piedone, protesters demanded his resignation, which he handed in on 4 November.[23]

The National Anticorruption Directorate began investigating the case and they arrested Popescu Piedone on November 6 on charges of abuse of power for not respecting the fire safety laws when authorizing the nightclub.[24]

In April 2016, Popescu Piedone registered as a candidate for the Sector 4 mayorship in the 2016 local elections, but his candidacy was contested by an association of the victims in the Colectiv nightclub fire.[25] The judges of Bucharest Tribunal decided to disallow him from becoming a candidate.[26] Following the 2020 local elections, Popescu Piedone was elected mayor of Sector 5.

In May 2022, the Bucharest Court of Appeal sentenced Popescu Piedone to 4 years of jail time for abuse of office in regards to the Colectiv nightclub fire trial. This also ended his term as mayor of Sector 5; Piedone was barred from public offices for an additional 5 years after the jail time.[27] He was liberated in June 2023, after serving time at Jilava Prison.[28]

As a mayor, Piedone took strong social welfare measures, making him an important populist figure in local, as well as national politics.[29][30][31][32][33]

References

  1. ^ https://www.imopedia.ro/stiri-imobiliare/piedone-primar-cristian-popescu
  2. ^ https://www.imopedia.ro/stiri-imobiliare/piedone-primar-cristian-popescu
  3. ^ https://www.podul.ro/articol/10725/dezvaluire-inedita-in-anii-80-piedone-era-sef-la-casa-de-comenzi-a-pcr-militia-l-a-prins-ca-a-furat-si-el-ameninta-ca-se-sinucide-secretele-candidatului-din-buzunarul-lui-dan-felix-voiculescu-exclusiv
  4. ^ a b c d "Piedone a strivit gramatica limbii române". Evenimentul Zilei. 2008-04-08. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  5. ^ a b "Știați că…primarul Piedone a terminat liceul la 32 de ani?". Revista Kamikaze. Archived from the original on 2015-11-12. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  6. ^ https://www.podul.ro/articol/10725/dezvaluire-inedita-in-anii-80-piedone-era-sef-la-casa-de-comenzi-a-pcr-militia-l-a-prins-ca-a-furat-si-el-ameninta-ca-se-sinucide-secretele-candidatului-din-buzunarul-lui-dan-felix-voiculescu-exclusiv
  7. ^ "Popescu-Piedone, printre "prieteni" în PC". Gândul. 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  8. ^ a b "Luptă strânsă în sectorul cu datorii de 4.000 de miliarde". Jurnalul Național. 2008-05-29. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  9. ^ "Adriean Videanu a câştigat alegerile pentru Primăria București". Gândacul de Colorado. 2005-04-07.
  10. ^ a b "Piedone a rămas fără permis". Mediafax. 2009-05-25. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  11. ^ a b "Piedone, consilier ilegal pentru permis". Adevărul. 2008-07-14. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  12. ^ "Piedone vrea la Primaria Capitalei". Jurnalul Național. 2005-01-21. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  13. ^ "Alegeri locale 2008". Revista 22. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  14. ^ a b "Cristian Popescu Piedone s-a împăcat cu șefii PC: Să nu se mai comenteze că voi candida la nu știu ce Primărie a Capitalei din partea a nu știu ce partid. Voi fi candidatul PC la Primăria sectorului 4". HotNews. 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  15. ^ "Cristian Popescu-Piedone și-a dat demisia din toate funcțiile deținute în PC. El cere organizarea unui Congres extraordinar al partidului". HotNews. 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  16. ^ "Cristian Popescu-Piedone: Intenția mea pentru 2012 este de a candida sub sigla UNPR". HotNews. 2011-11-03. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  17. ^ "VIDEO Elena Udrea a anuntat ca Popescu Piedone va fi coordonatorul campaniei PDL-UNPR la alegerile din noiembrie 2012 din Bucuresti". Hotnews. 2011-12-13. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  18. ^ "Cristian Preda: Candidatura lui Piedone sub sigla USL nu este o surpriza. Orice negociere cu UNPR este o capcana". 2012-03-30. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  19. ^ "REZULTATE ALEGERI SECTORUL 4:Piedone, un nou mandat la primărie | Romania Libera". România Liberă. 2012-06-11. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  20. ^ "Piedone pleacă din partidul lui Tăriceanu: "Nu mă regăsesc în ALDE. Mă leagă o frumoasă prietenie de Gabriel Oprea"". Adevărul. 2015-07-31. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  21. ^ "Cristian Popescu-Piedone isi anunta decizia de a se "alia interesului national" si va candida din partea UNPR, tot la Sectorul 4". Hotnews. 2015-09-02. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  22. ^ a b "Cristian Popescu-Piedone, urmărit penal pentru distrugerea unui element de patrimoniu. Ce răspunde Edilul Sectorului 4". Evenimentul Zilei. 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  23. ^ "Cristian Popescu Piedone a demisionat: "E un act. Onoarea trebuia să fie în prima zi"". Digi24. 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  24. ^ "Piedone a fost REŢINUT de procurorii DNA în dosarul Colectiv". Digi24. 2015-11-06. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  25. ^ "Motivarea instantei in cazul lui Cristian Popescu Piedone: Buna reputatie nu e conditie in lege pentru admisibilitatea candidaturii". HotNews. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
  26. ^ "Cristian Popescu Piedone nu mai poate candida la Primăria Sectorului 4". Mediafax.ro. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
  27. ^ "Decizie finală în procesul Colectiv. Cristian Popescu Piedone, condamnat la 4 ani de închisoare cu executare". Digi24 (in Romanian). 12 May 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  28. ^ Stanciu, Ena; Driu, Eli (June 21, 2023). "Piedone a fost eliberat de la Penitenciarul Jilava, la câteva ore după ce a fost achitat în dosarul Colectiv. "Nu voi cere despăgubiri"". Libertatea (in Romanian). Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  29. ^ https://mainnews.ro/cum-a-devenit-piedone-regele-populismului/
  30. ^ https://newsweek.ro/politica/populismele-lui-piedone-sedinte-la-500-dimineata-inviorare-obligatorie-pentru-directori
  31. ^ https://romania.europalibera.org/a/sprijin-online-piedone/31854469.html
  32. ^ https://ziare.com/politica/campanie/piedone-primarul-anti-politica-din-minusculul-pc-337679
  33. ^ https://www.puterea.ro/manualele-de-populism-sunt-bine-scrise/
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