Radu Câmpeanu

Radu-Anton Câmpeanu (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈradu kɨmˈpe̯anu]; 28 February 1922 – 19 October 2016) was a Romanian politician who was also jurist and economist by profession, after graduating from the University of Bucharest (UB) in November 1945, specializing in constitutional right. During the interwar period and up until 1945, he was the leader of the National Liberal students' association at nationwide level (the equivalent of today's National Liberal Youth Wing or TNL for short).

While in exile abroad in France, at some point in time due to the exile of Paul Goma and his arrival in France as well, Câmpeanu was suspected to have become an informer of the Securitatea (the Romanian communist secret police), but no conclusive evidence had been produced to support this allegation. Throughout his years of exile, he had worked as an editorialist and as a collaborator for a Radio Univers as well as for Radio Free Europe and BBC. In addition, during the 1980s (for a period of time of seven years), he also worked as an editorialist for his own newspaper, entitled B.I.R.E. (i.e. Buletinul de Informație pentru Români în Exil or The Bulletin of Information for Romanians in exile). Furthermore, while still in exile, Radu Câmpeanu was the president of the Association of Former Political Detainees from Romania (Romanian: Asociația Foștilor Deținuți Politici din România) as well as a member of the Thinking and Action Liberal Club (Romanian: Clubul de Gândire și Acțiune Liberală, also known as Clubul de Acțiune și Gândire Liberală Românească, Clubul Liberal Român, or Clubul Liberal).

Câmpeanu was the first president of the contemporary National Liberal Party (PNL) whose term unfolded between 1990 and 1993, a political party he helped re-found in early January 1990, shortly after the fall of communism, as well as a Senator on behalf of the PNL between 1990 and 1992, and then once more between 2004 and 2008.

During the early 1990s, Câmpeanu served as one of the 5 vice-presidents of the Provisional National Unity Council (Romanian: Consiliul Provizoriu de Uniune Națională), also known as CPUN for short, a position which could be equated with that of state vice-president. Câmpeanu participated in the first Romanian presidential debate after 1989, alongside Ion Iliescu of the National Salvation Front (FSN) and Ion Rațiu of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD), held on 17 May 1990. Câmpeanu subsequently came in second after Ion Iliescu in the 1990 Romanian presidential election with 1,529,188 votes or 10.64%. As a politician, according to him, he was a supporter of dialogue between people who have contrary opinions.