A new article of local journalism project Recorder.ro looks at the business beginnings of Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD), before he entered politics.

The Romanian politician, who was 27 years old in August 1990, started his entrepreneurial ventures with a fortune made up of several household goods and a Dacia car, which he had bought from someone who had won the car in the lottery.

The first business of the young Dragnea, a graduate of the Transport Faculty of the Bucharest Polytechnic, was a bar in his wife’s village. The locals Recorder.ro spoke to even remembered him behind the counter or waiting tables. The first bar extended later into a network of such venues in neighboring villages.

Another way he made money was by taking the peasant’s goods to various fairs in the country. For this, he was using an Aro car he had put together himself. Aro was a Romanian off-road vehicle manufacturer. The first Aro vehicles were produced in 1957, and the last in 2003.

In 1993, a company of Dragnea’s and of an associate took over the management of several state-owned companies, among them an inn, a hotel and a restaurant in Turnu Măgurele, a city in Teleorman county.

The businesses were supposed to maintain their initial area of activity but were expanded into facilities with slot machines or billiard tables. The inn ended up accommodating a small store and an open-air disco, while a food store and an en-gross storage facility were added to the hotel and restaurant, Recorder.ro found.

The full article can be read here.

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editor@romania-insider.com