Maybe Romania’s former spy chief can provide some intelligence on how a pro-Russian politician who barely figured in opinion polls managed to win the first round of presidential elections.
In any case, the former chief of Romania’s domestic intelligence agency, SRI, Eduard Hellvig announced Tuesday he was joining the center-right Liberal Party at a “difficult moment for democracy” in the EU and NATO state.
Romania is reeling from the shock win of hard-right candidate Calin Georgescu, who polled in the single-digits and defied the polls to easily win the first round of Nov. 24 elections.He is known for his anti-NATO and EU views.
Romania’s multiple intelligence agencies have come under fire for not observing the rise of the hard-right candidate who produced the biggest political upset of the last 35 years. But Mr. Hellvig can’t be blamed as it didn’t happen under his watch. He quit the SRI in July 2023.
The former spy chief joined the party on Tuesday, the day after the resignation of former Liberal Party chief, Nicolae Ciuca, who came an embarrassing fifth in the election.
Former Oradea mayor llie Bolojan stepped in as interim chief pending party elections.
“A good day for PNL,” wrote Liberal lawmaker George Tuță on X about Hellvig’s return to the party. He left in 2015 when he was appointed the head of the Romanian Intelligence Agency (SRI).
“I’m not running for anything” Hellvig said Tuesday adding that “the party has reset”.
“It’s time to deliver for the future,” he said.
. “I signed up today to the National Liberal Party. I feel that it is a difficult moment for Romanian democracy and ..the Liberals need to be more united than ever,” Hellvig wrote on X, the former Twitter.
Hopefully his eight plus years as Romania’s main intelligence official can shed some light on the current situation.
For the time being, he declared: “I came back to help a party founded on correct ideas, by authentic liberals and to defend my personal, Euro-Atlantic, center-right conservative values.”
Hellvig originally joined the National Liberal Party in 2008, and was secretary general of the National Liberal Party between 2011 and 2014.
Hellvig served as Minister of Regional Development and Tourism between May and December 2012.
In March 2015, President Klaus Iohannis appointed him director of the SRI, and he left the party. He resigned the position in July 2023, after serving more than eight years in the role.
