Romania’s President Nicusor Dan has brought change to his country: a personal unassuming style, an atypical route to Romania’s top job_ on top of the hopes that millions of Romanians have invested in him.
And the former mathematician has brought another first to his new workplace, the 17th century Cotroceni Palace, built for kings and lords, that it hasn’t seen in more than a century: the patter of tiny feet.
Dan, 55, is Romania’s first post-communist president to have young children. He shares a 9-year-old daughter Aheea and a 3-year-old son Antim with his partner, Mirabela Gradinaru. So, two firsts: young children at Cotroceni and an unmarried head of state in a socially conservative country, who nonetheless has promised to tie the knot with his partner of 20 years soon enough.
In recent weeks, Romanians have seen the newly elected Dan, rucksack on his back, pick up his daughter from school flanked by his security. Old interviews and photos of the rented family home in working class district of Bucharest have resurfaced including a touching photo of his baby son, who was born prematurely, asleep on a sleeping Dan’s chest.
On Monday, when Dan took the oath in Parliament, all eyes were on one little bespectacled girl dressed in white who watched the scene in rapt attention. The man taking the oath before the nation wasn’t just Romania’s new president, but ‘tati, presedinte.’ (My daddy, president).
Later at the palace as Dan prepared to make a speech, Aheea followed him to the podium, only for him to gesture that it wasn’t her place. She scampered out of the hall to laughter, a light, human moment, that pierced the solemnity.
Such is Dan’s commitment to keeping a normal life for his children that he has said the family will only move into their presidential accommodation when school year ends for the summer on June 15.
In Romania, an attitude like this at this level is unheard of: leaders prefer to guard the mystery and untouchability that mostly comes with high office, and to keep their domestic lives behind the curtains in a country traumatized by late Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and the hated first lady, Elena Ceausescu and their three children.
Romania’s first post-communist president Ion Iliescu didn’t have any children, and his wife, Nina was rarely seen publicly, while the children of Emil Constantinescu (1996-2000) were grown up. Traian Basescu who was president from 2004-2014 had two adult daughters and the last president, Klaus Iohannis didn’t have children. His wife Carmen was excoriated by the media and kept out of the public eye most of the time.
Let’s return to Cotroceni Palace, an imposing but elegant edifice where Romania decided to break neutrality and join the Entente (France, Russia, the Great Britain) in 1916 and two years later, leaders signed the Bucharest Peace Treaty. The palace which was damaged by the 1977 earthquake and stands on the west bank of the Dambovita is where Dan’s children will be able to roam, play and climb trees if they wish. It was transformed into the offices and reception area for Romania’s presidents after communism collapsed in 1989 returning to its original purpose.
Built in the 17th century, and founded by Serban Cantacuzino, it was gifted to Crown Ferdinand and Marie as a residence in the 1890s and they brought up their six children there.
Prince Mircea of Romania, the youngest of child of King Ferdinand of Romania and Queen Marie was born at Cotroceni Palace in January 1913, the year before Ferdinand became king, only to die before his fourth birthday of typhoid fever.
The palace also has an Orthodox Church on its grounds, but it’s unclear whether Dan will choose to marry there. What seems clear is that Dan’s young children will enjoy life there and Romanians have a leader who is open about his family life.
Background
Dan ran as an independent who started out his public life as a civic activist protecting Bucharest’s architectural heritage. A maths Olympiad, he ran for mayor twice in 2012 and 2016 before winning in 2020 and easily winning re-election in 2024.
After Romania cancelled elections amid allegations of Russian interference that skewed the outcome to propel a radical outsider to first place, Dan announced he would stand for the May rerun. Although popular in Bucharest, he was attacked on all sides, by the nationalists as well as the mainstream parties, but still prevailed.
Dan overcame the odds to decisively win the May 18 runoff and begin a new era in Romanian politics where many are frustrated with the ruling class and worried about the war in neighboring Ukraine and the economy.
Britain’s King Charles congratulates Romania’s new president, Nicusor Dan
