Andrei Marga - Biography

Biography

Marga was born in Bucharest, attended the University of Cluj and also had a one-year scholarship at the University of Freiburg (West Germany) for a year. A member of the Romanian Communist Party from his university days, he was for a time the leader of the Communist Students Union of the University of Cluj.

In 1993, he became the rector of the Babeş-Bolyai University, of Cluj-Napoca.

As minister, Andrei Marga promoted educational system reform, stressing that the communist legacy had contributed to a rise in political corruption, and indicating that Romanian education lacked staples of professionalism such as underlined purposes, standards in certification, and evaluation criteria. Marga also criticized the system for relying on "original features" and "Romanian traditions", which had been explained as a means to promote national development, but, in effect, had contributed to the gap between Romania and the Western world. He called for these traditions to be amended, and for modernization to be introduced, and defined his goals as "increasing the links between education and the economic, administrative and cultural environment, improving the educational infrastructure, eliminating paternalism and populism from educational management, and enhancing international cooperation in education".

The program was criticized by the political opposition, who argued that the system in place was satisfactory, and blamed the existing problems on the post-1989 political and social climate. In parallel, supporters of reform were dissatisfied with its slow pace and inadequate financing.

In early 1998, a controversy erupted in Romanian politics, after the CDR announced that it was planning to stand by the plan to set up separate universities for the Hungarian minority. The decision was in turn based on a promise made to their coalition partner, the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania. In this context, Marga took the middle ground, saying that he supported separate Hungarian-language sections but not separate institutions (a similar view was expressed by the CDR's other coalition partner, the Democratic Party).

Marga only joined the PNŢCD in 1999, two years before ascending to its leadership. However, party rules prohibited members with less than 5 years in the party from running for party president. During the party's congress, a few candidates resigned in support of Marga and the party's constitution was amended to allow Marga to run. Marga was able to defeat his other conservative opponents with the support of the congress in spite of opposition from the party hierarchy. He was brought in to reform the party and position it to recover from the loses of the December 2000 election. However, his tenure failed to bring in the rapid changes desired and opposition from prominent conservative elements in his party stifled his ideas. He resigned in July 2001.

In 2002, Marga joined the PNŢCD's former coalition partner, the National Liberal Party. At the time, a voice from within the PNL, Mihai Voicu, indicated that this was part of an "internal consolidation" trend, with the National Liberals attracting members from less successful CDR groups and other right-wing or centrist forces.

From May to August 2012, Marga served as Foreign Minister in the government of Victor Ponta.