Bogdan Niculescu-Duvăz

Born in Bucharest, he graduated from the Ion Mincu Institute in 1977, and subsequently worked as architect for the Urban Planning Institute in Tulcea, then as a designer for the Bucharest Home Appliances Research Institute, and ultimately as a designer of lighting appliances for the Carpaţi Institute.[1] He entered politics in early 1990, in the wake of the Romanian Revolution, joining the National Salvation Front (FSN), becoming its Secretary and, in 1991, Vice President.[1] In January 1990, Niculescu-Duvăz also joined the provisional governing body (the Provisional National Unity Council, CPUN), as a simple member.[1]

In the 1990 elections, he won a seat in the Chamber, representing Bucharest.[1] He became a Minister of Youth and Sport in the second Petre Roman cabinet (June 1990), resigning his position in the Chamber in late July.[1] In early 1992, following the September 1991 Mineriad and Roman's resignation from office, Niculescu-Duvăz joined the latter in creating the opposition wing of the FSN, which was to become the PD in 1993.[1] After briefly serving on the Bucharest City Council in early 1992, Niculescu-Duvăz was reelected to the Chamber in the 1992 and 1996 suffrages, representing Constanța County, and served on the Chamber Committee for Public Administration and Territorial Improvement.[1] He joined Victor Ciorbea's coalition government, created around the Romanian Democratic Convention, holding the office of Minister for Relations with Parliament (1996-1998).[1]

He was the PD's Vice President, and, during the elections of 2000, its campaign coordinator.[1] Also in 2000, Niculescu-Duvăz was again elected a deputy for Constanţa County, and was delegated to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, briefly serving on several of its Commissions.[1] From February to November of the same year, he was Vice President of the Chamber.[1]

He resigned from the PD in 2003, and soon after joined the PSD, becoming the Executive Secretary of its National Bureau.[1] A Quaestor of the Chamber in September 2002 and a member of several Committees (Foreign Policy, European Integration, and the Common Committee of the Chamber and Senate for Drafting Legislative Proposals in Respect to Electoral Laws), Niculescu-Duvăz was again assigned to a ministerial position in Adrian Năstase's executive, serving as Minister-Delegate for Relations with the Social Partners (July–December 2004).[1]

Former President Emil Constantinescu alleged, in 2005 and 2006, that his successor and former PD president Traian Băsescu had been a member of Communist Romania's secret police, the Securitate, and contended that, together with Petre Roman and Victor Babiuc, Niculescu-Duvăz had witnessed Băsescu's acknowledgment that this was the case.[2][3] Constantinescu repeatedly asked for the three alleged witnesses to be summoned for a hearing with the CNSAS (the Council charged with investigating Securitate affiliations).[2][3]

In early 2007, Bogdan Niculescu-Duvăz voiced the PSD's calls for the first Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu Justice and Truth government to undergo restructuring, while contending that the latter's realignment along with the National Liberal Party was not a solution to crisis.[4]

Niculescu-Duvăz was married and the father of two.[1] He was a trophy hunter, a member of the General Association of Sport Hunters and Fishermen (since 1990), and founder of the Romanian yacht club.[1]