The decision on plagiarism by the Ethics Commission of the University of Babes Bolyai in the Lucian Bode case has for now silenced the leaders of the PNL, who two days ago were learning to defend the Minister of the Interior and attack her journalist who discovered plagiarism in her doctoral thesis. on the grounds that she was not an authority in the field. The only one who came forward to ask for his resignation was Dan Vilcanu, the former minister and general secretary of the party, tainted by the Lucian Bode-Nicolae Chuke tandem with the blessing of Klaus Iohannis. Why are the liberals silent now, when they did not hesitate to quickly expose other ministers accused of plagiarism, namely Florin Roman and Sorin Kimpeanu?

Assertive in politics and able to offer his services to the bosses, Lucian Bode is now the de facto head of the PNL. Symbolically, simply accessing the PNL website opens up a section of the party’s leadership team, namely the Executive Office, with a picture of Lucian Bode, the general secretary, followed by Nicolae Chuke, the party’s president, even though he is first in the constitution. mentioned in the composition, and the general secretary is the third, after the first vice-presidents.

“In the party, Bode distinguished himself by being a good organizer, scrupulous, organized and hard-working, very ambitious, but also extremely obedient to the party leadership,” a HotNews.ro source profiled Lucian Bode.

With more than 20 years of experience in Romanian politics, Bode’s rise is closely linked to the Transylvanian Liberals. It is currently run by Nicolae Chuke with the support of President Klaus Iohannis, who currently has the full support of the Liberals to extend his mandate as interior minister, according to HotNews.ro sources. So far, the Liberals have not received a signal from Iohannis to change their ways.

“At the moment, no one is denying or criticizing Lucian Bode’s actions in the hope that the plagiarism scandal will go away by itself. Bode has the full support of President Klaus Iohannis and is the one who guides Chuke in dealing with leaders in the territory. His possible dismissal or resignation will directly affect Chuke and the presidential project,” the politicians explained to HotNews.ro. Bode is an important pawn in Yohannis’ plan to continue working with the PSD not only until 2024, but beyond. Furthermore, the resignation/dismissal would also make Nikolay Chuke vulnerable, he would also be accused of plagiarism and, for now, papered over as a possible presidential candidate.

In addition, the Schengen moment should be noted, when behind closed doors the liberals expressed their dissatisfaction, and some demanded the head of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bohdan Aureska, after the failure of accession, and not Lucian Bode, the Minister of the Interior, the chief negotiator.

The rise of Bode in central politics

An engineer by profession, Bode entered politics at the local level in 2000, according to a resume published in the Chamber of Deputies, and the first positions he held were local councilor of the Valkeu de Jos commune and secretary of PD Sălaj. According to the summary, he was the general secretary of the PD-L until 2008, then ran for and was elected as Salai’s deputy. Also in 2008, he was elected president of the PDL-Sălaj organization.

“Bode’s start in central politics is closely connected with Daniel Buda – Emil Bock’s confidant in the parliament. Another fact is that Bode was the secretary of PDL Sălaj during a period when a third of the people in the organization’s political bureau worked for the city’s water supply and sewerage company, which was effectively owned by the Cluj County Council. In other words, on Emil Bock’s payment statement,” political sources explained to HotNews.ro.

It should be noted that the current president of PNL Cluj, MEP Daniel Buda comes from the commune of Romani in Salaj county, and his brother Ioan Buda is the mayor of this commune.

Who are the leaders who supported Bode

It is known within the PNL that Lucian Bode is strongly supported and constantly promoted by PNL leaders from the northwest of the country, former PD-L leaders: Emil Bock, Daniel Buda, Vasyl Blaga, Gheorghe Flutur and Gheorghe Falke. .

In 2008, Vasile Blaga supported him as president of PDL Sălaj. Since 2008, when he entered parliament, Bode has been a close friend of PDL Cluj leader Daniel Buda, a confidant of Emil Bock.

“In the party, Bode distinguished himself by being a ‘good organizer, scrupulous, organized and hard-working, very ambitious, but also extremely obedient to the party leadership,'” Hotnews.ro sources said.

In 2012, the PD-L deputy, Lucian Bode, is the Minister of Economy in the Hungarian government for 73 days, proposed and supported by the PD-L Cluj organization.

After the merger of the PNL with the PD-L in 2014, Lucian Bode was elected president of PNL Sălaj and vice-president of the northwest region with the support of Emil Bock, Gheorghe Falke and the Cluj, Sălăj, Bihor, Arad, Satu Mare organizations.

Bode and connection with Cluj

In 2019, Lucian Bode, with the support of the same leaders, became Minister of Transport in Ludovic Orbán’s government. Bode appoints Stefania Ferenc, former chief of staff to former prime minister Emil Bock, as state secretary in the ministry he heads. In addition, during Bode’s time at Transporturi, Ferenc was also appointed to the boards of directors of ROMATSA and CNAIR, reports Adevărul.ro.

In 2020, Lucian Bode finds himself in a government led by Florin Sitsu, this time as Minister of the Interior. The same Stefania Ferenc was appointed as the State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Moreover, Bode appoints his close entourage, Chief Commissioner Viktor Štefan Ivaska, head of the border police inspectorate, reports ziardecluj.ro.

Scandal with BMW and connection with President Yohannis

A controversial episode of the powers of the head of the Ministry of the Interior is the scandal with 600 BMW cars for the police company Automobile Bavaria, which is run by Michael Schmidt, a friend of President Klaus Johannis.

The Romanian police defended itself, saying that a similar procedure had taken place last year, only involving 300 cars, but with the same technical characteristics.

Lucian Bode claimed the tender was fair, accusing USR leader Catalin Drula of misinformation and threatening Romania’s entry into Schengen.

The research done at the SRI academy gave him a headache

Regarding education, Lucian Bode graduated in 1998 from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Oradea.

In 2011, he obtained a master’s degree in Security Management in Modern Society at the University of Babes Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, and in 2018 he defended his PhD in International Relations and European Studies at the University of Babes Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca.

It should be noted that Lucian Bode’s doctoral work was coordinated by Professor Adrian-Liviu Ivan, who is currently the main rector of the SRI Academy “Mihai Viteazu” in Bucharest.

The Ethics Commission of Babes-Bolyai University analyzed the doctoral thesis of Interior Minister Lucian Bode and concluded that “the vast majority of suspicions of plagiarism are confirmed” and “the revealed ethical violations are important enough to conclude that the thesis is deeply flawed.”