Antonie Iorgovan, Requiescat in pace.

The man who wrote Free Romania's constitution ha left us...

Antonie Iorgovam was transferred Saturday evening from the Bucharest University Emergency Hospital to a medical clinic in Vienna. The Social Democrat Senator, who died at age 59, had been admitted to the “Matei Bals” Institute for Infectious Diseases for a routine check-up, as he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer some time ago and operated upon in Germany, about two years ago. His condition has deteriorated lately. The Senator was to undergo surgery in Vienna, yet his death happened before it.

Yesterday, Senators observed a moment of silence in the memory of their fellow MP, after Senate Speaker Nicolae Vacaroiu had announced that Iorgovan is dead. According to Vacaroiu, all the attempts by doctor-Senators, Sorin Oprescu especially, to find a solution for Iorgovan’s disease, both in Romania and abroad, failed. “When I spoke about the Constitution, I spoke of him as the father of the Constitution, Antonie Iorgovan. Not only that, he was an outstanding colleague, a good colleague, a fighter, a proponent of bill of laws. For us, I hold the belief ,this is a huge loss,” Vacaroiu said, quoted by Rompres. Also yesterday, the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), also observed a moment of silence in Iorgovan’s memory in the opening of the meeting of the National Standing Bureau. Rather reserved after Wednesday’s failed censure motion, The PSD President, Mircea Geoana, said that Iorgovan had been a distinguished politician and a landmark for Romanian politics. Iorgovan’s colleague and friend, Ion Iliescu, was more “generous” with his statements, saying the senator’s death is a loss for the entire Romanian society. He expressed his deep grief over the departure of his late collaborator, saying he was a fighter to the bitter end, although he could not win over the hard disease that killed him.

Liberals expressed yesterday, through the voice of the party’s president, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, their regret over the death of the social democrat senator. “I am sorry. He was one of those who had been actively and substantially involved with the drafting of the Constitution,” Tariceanu said. Also, National Liberal Party (PNL) Vice-President Crin Antonescu outlined that Iorgovan’s death is a great loss for the Romanian political life.

“The PSD senator definitely leaves behind some major accomplishments, a Constitution linked to his name and which, despite all the flaws or disputable aspects, was a major piece of work for Romania after 1990,” Antonescu said. The Democrats and the members of the Hungarian Democratic Union in Romania see Iorgovan’s death as a loss for the entire Senate, a view also shared by those with the Greater Romania Party.

Further more, Conservative Deputy Sergiu Andon mentioned that Antonie Iorgovan linked his name to the creation of the Constitution both through his special role in promoting the constitutional spirit and in creating a constitutional culture. “If Justice is somehow represented with a sword, then, Antonie Iorgovan was the sword bearer,” Andon said.

The Prahova charter of the PSD is in mourning after the death of Senator Iorgovan. The principal private secretary to the late senator, Lucian Costea, said that the senator’s dead body was to be brought to the country yesterday evening and interred at Bucharest’s Belu Cemetery. Those willing to pay their respects to the late senator can do it at the Senate headquarters, where the Senator will lie in state. In his turn, the president of the PSD Prahova, Marian Saniuta, said all of Iorgovan’s colleagues grieved over his death.

Antonie’s dream was to become an Euro MP and to work on the Commission for drafting the European Constitution, said lawyer Ana Maria Mihalcescu, Iorgovan’s partner in “Societatea de Avocatura” law firm.

Nine O'Clock: Ex colleagues say farewell to the late Senator Iorgovan