Liviu Dragnea

Liviu Nicolae Dragnea (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈlivju nikoˈla.e ˈdraɡne̯a]; born 28 October 1962) is a Romanian engineer and former politician. Starting his career in the Democratic Party (PD), he joined the Social Democratic Party (PSD), eventually becoming its leader. After holding several positions as Minister, he resigned from the cabinet in May 2015, following a conviction in a case involving electoral fraud, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence in April 2016.

In December 2016, following that year's legislative election, he became President of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania, but was rumoured by the press to be the de facto Prime Minister of Romania. During this period, Romania experienced a strong economic growth, but his rule was marked by corruption scandals and accusations of authoritarian tendencies, as well as a shift towards illiberalism, which led to the biggest protests in Romania's post-revolutionary history. In May 2019, he was sent to prison for three and a half years, convicted of arranging payment for two party members employed in fake jobs and paid by a state agency. Simultaneously, his term in the Chamber drew to a close. In July 2021, the prison sentence was lifted, ending his jail time 1 year and 4 months earlier.