Wealth of controversial presidential candidate Cumpanasu raises eyebrows in Romania

Romanian media reacted in furore on Wednesday to news of the wealth of a controversial candidate in the upcoming presidential elections. Alexandru Cumpanasu, the head of an NGO with strong links to state institutions and closely associated with the governing PSD, has accumulated quite a fortune.

• He has come to public attention for the past several months as a relative and spokesman of the family of a teenage girl who was abducted and murdered in the city of Caracal, South Romania. The case shocked the country – and also offered Cumpanasu a platform to make himself known to wider audiences and, now, enlist himself in the race for presidency in elections due to take place in November.

According to the wealth statement he submitted on the occasion, Alexandru Cumpanasu has seven villas and apartments, three in-city plots of land and he and his wife received from mostly the same sources (public money) over RON 1.6 million.

The wealth statement also mentiones an EUR 300,000 million loan he received from an Economy Ministry counselor.

Cumpanasu has made a name by associating himself with politicians close to intelligence services, with various diplomats and politicians of the governing Social Democrats (PSD). He leads an association of NGO’s that has managed to bring together many respectable organisations, some of which have left after his announcement he would run for president.