Anna-Marie Blajan profiles Prime Minister Emil Boc for European Voice, and the results are rather dogged. Blajan writes:
Certainly the description of Boc as a "poodle" is not intended to emphasize his friendliness and fun hair styles. In fact, it took a fall from great heights to lift Boc to the political pedestal.
He was relatively unknown until he fell from a four-metre-high stage during a live television show six years ago.
“I had no hesitation in believing he was dead,” says Andrei Gheorghe, the show's host. “I owe him for life for what he did afterwards.” After 20 minutes of commercials and a quick medical check-up, Boc was back on the air. He took part in the discussion for another 30 minutes and was coherent and relatively composed. The shocking images of the incident, which were later posted on YouTube, made him famous across the country.
While Boc's fall caught the attention of the public, his rise alerted his political enemies. Ion Iliescu, then Romanian president, warned his Social Democrat Party (SDP) to watch a man whose openness, straight-talking and competence had made him increasingly popular.
Boc was the SDP's toughest critic until last December, when he formed a coalition government with the party that he had routinely described as being the most corrupt in Romania's post-communist history.
Proving that the bite of a poodle might be more dangerous than its bark, Boc quickly adapted to the Romanian political scene by assuming leadership of the Democratic Party when Basescu won the Presidency in 2004. According to Blajan:
He masterminded the DP's “hallucinating transition”, as Pirvulescu calls it, from socialism to conservatism and then helped the DP join the centre-right European People's Party.
Even though he spent more time in Bucharest than in Cluj during his time as mayor, Cluj's citizens were satisfied with his work and re-elected him in 2008 – with 76.2% of the votes. But he left his home city to become prime minister in December 2008, after Theodor Stolojan, Basescu's first choice, declined the offer.
The question remains-- is Boc "a new breed of politician", a self-made man from outside the political elite, a freethinking independent, a dedicated public servant driven by principle? Or is he just a particularly fancy sort of a poodle?
To learn more about Boc, explore the following:
- Wikipedia entry on Emil Boc.
- Press statements made by Boc on the situation of national minorities.
- "Carelessness of previous government not to be seen in 2009 budget", an article outlining Boc's points and perspective on the economic crisis.
- Summary of Emil Boc's keynote speech for the Romanian Academy this year.
- Catavencu's take on Emil Boc.
- Radupress blogs about Boc (hat tip to him for the photo).
