Foreign Intelligence Service director resigns

Less than 18 months after beginning his second term as the head of Romanias Foreign Intelligence Service, Mihai Razvan Ungureanu has resigned from office.

Bogdan Matei, 27.09.2016, 13:22

The director of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service Mihai Razvan Ungureanu on Monday handed in his resignation. President Klaus Iohannis said he would nominate a new person for the job after the parliamentary elections of December 11th. He added that did not have anyone specific in mind for the position, and that things are under control at the Foreign Intelligence Service, where deputy director, general Silviu Predoiu, considered by many the de facto head, will become the interim director of the service. Klaus Iohannis:

“I received director Ungureanus resignation today around noon. He invoked personal reasons for his resignation and I do not have additional information. However, given that the Foreign Intelligence Service must continue its work and be prepared at all times to intervene in any situation, I thought it was important to act quickly. So, as soon as I received the resignation and accepted it, I made public my acceptance. The service will now be led by an interim director until the required bureaucratic procedures are completed.

The head of the parliamentary committee exercising control over the activity of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Mihaita Calimente, says Mihai Razvan Ungureanu invoked medical reasons for his resignation:

“I received a phone call from director Mihai Razvan Ungureanu who asked me to take his word that his resignation is due to health issues. He told he has to lie in bed, that it is a serious problem and that this is the only reason he resigned. No one said anything about there being or having been a conflict between the Service and the presidents office.

Speculations about a chill in the relations between Iohannis and Ungureanu appeared a few months ago. A university professor, a historian and a polyglot, Mihai Razvan Ungureanu used to be a protégé of the former president Traian Basescu. In the latters ten years in office, Ungureanu was foreign minister between 2004 and 2007, served a short stint as prime minister between February and May 2012, and led the Foreign Intelligence Service between 2007 and 2012.

Some commentators even pointed out ironically that the only thing missing from his resume was the countrys presidency, speculating that it was precisely his presidential ambitions that led to his fall from grace. Other rumors, which have been denied by the head of the Anticorruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi, speak of institutional dysfunctions between the Directorate and the Foreign Intelligence Service over the latters lack of support for investigations into cross-border corruption. Given these speculations, Mihai Razvan Ungureanus resignation should come as no surprise, according to the media.

(Translated by C. Mateescu)