Romanian President Nominates Former Envoy to Hungary as Intelligence Chief

Romanian President Nicusor Dan

If the governing coalition agrees, a current diplomat, who as Romanian ambassador to Budapest took a stand against the Hungarian government and refused to comply with a Hungarian Foreign Ministry request in connection with the desecration of the Valea Uzului (Úzvölgye) military cemetery six years ago, could be appointed to lead the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE).

President Nicușor Dan presented his candidates for the positions of director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) to the leaders of the parties forming the governing coalition on Tuesday. The heads of the secret services are appointed by the president, but they must also be approved by parliament.

The SRI is currently headed on an interim basis by Răzvan Ionescu, who has been working in intelligence operations for more than two decades. The position of head of the SRI has been vacant since July 2023. At that time, Eduard Hellvig resigned from his post after eight years. Gabriel Vlase, a representative of the PSD, has been at the helm of the SIE since 2018.

Nicușor Dan has now nominated diplomat Marius Lazurca, Romania’s ambassador to Mexico, who previously served as ambassador to Hungary, for the position of SIE director. The Romanian press reported that coalition leaders “did not take the nomination very well.”

As head of the Romanian diplomatic mission in Budapest, Marius Lazurca has on several occasions confronted the Hungarian government with a degree of openness that is unusual in diplomacy.

In June 2019, Hungary lodged a complaint with the Romanian government over the violent occupation of the military cemetery in Valea Uzului. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry summoned Romania’s ambassador, Lazurca, who, in an unprecedented move in diplomacy, did not comply with the request and refused to engage in dialogue.

In November 2019, Marius Lazurca publicly announced at an event in Békéscsaba to Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén that the Viktor Orbán-led government’s program to support Transylvanian farmers had not been agreed upon with the Bucharest cabinet. In April 2020, the diplomat became embroiled in a heated debate with the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade after taking a position on a domestic political issue in Hungary.

“It probably does not get any lower than this: the Romanian ambassador defended Tímea Szabó,” Péter Szijjártó commented at the time on Marius Lazurca’s defense of the co-chair of Dialogue for Hungary (Párbeszéd Magyarországért) in a closed WhatsApp group of ambassadors serving in Budapest.

Fact

Opposition politician Tímea Szabó listed the Hungarian-populated counties of Transylvania in parliament when she asked the government why it was giving masks, which are in short supply in Hungary, to other countries. “According to Tímea Szabó, it is a problem that Hungarians in Transylvania and Szeklerland received masks and protective clothing from the mother country. The Romanian ambassador likes the fact that there are parties in the Hungarian parliament that think this way. The Romanian ambassador’s obviously false hysterics are shocking, but even more shameful is that the Hungarian opposition and the Romanian ambassador have found common ground against Hungarians living beyond the border,” FM Péter Szijjártó commented on Marius Lazurca’s statement.

Current Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan believes that the head of state will certainly consult with the parliamentary parties on the appointment of the heads of the intelligence services, and he is convinced that a “wise decision” will be made. PSD acting president Sorin Grindeanu said that people who protect national interests should be appointed to head the intelligence services.

The SRI and SIE are key institutions in Romania. “Compared to other NATO member states, the Romanian services have greater than average jurisdiction, manpower, and responsibilities. They control socio-economic life,” political analyst and former diplomat János Barabás T. told Maszol. “Today, it is no different; the Hungarian community is considered a potential threat because of its aspirations for autonomy and its ties to Budapest. Their nightmare scenario is a Hungarian-Russian alliance against Romania, which shows how detached their thinking is from reality. In recent years, with the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania-RMDSZ’s membership in the governing coalition, Romania’s national security strategy has become so refined that it no longer considers Romanian ethnic separatism a major threat, but rather, as they put it, the illiberal nationalist policies of a neighboring state,” said János Barabás T.

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