Marian Lupu

Background and education

Marian Lupu was born on 20 June 1966 in Bălţi, but he and his family moved to Chişinău when he was 6 years old. His parents gave him the nickname Marcel, because they liked the Romanian accordion musician Marcel Budală (1926–1989). His father, Ilie Lupu (b. 1938), was a mathematics professor at the Moldova State University. His mother taught French language at the Nicolae Testemiţanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy. He had been a member of Komsomol from 1980 until 1988 and a Member of Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1988 to 1991.

Until 1983, Lupu studied at "Gheorghe Asachi" High School of Chişinău. He studied Economics at Moldova State University (until 1987) and at Plekhanov Moscow Institute of the National Economy (1987–1991) in Moscow where he obtained his Ph.D. in Economics. Lupu also attended stages at the Institute of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. (1994) and World Trade Organization in Geneva (1996).

Besides speaking his native Romanian, Lupu speaks English, French, and Russian. Lupu was married in 1992 and has two children, Alexandra and Cristian.

Political career

He was named as Vice Minister of the Economy in the new Communist Tarlev cabinet in June 2001. Two years later in August 2003, Lupu was promoted to full Minister of the Economy (5 August 2003 - 24 March 2005).

After the Communists won re-election in 2005, Lupu was once again promoted, this time as Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament. Marian Lupu was Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament from March 2005 to May 2009. But in December 2008, Lupu was not included by president Vladimir Voronin in the composition of the Supreme Security Council. Lupu was a high-ranking member of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova and was considered to be a leading candidate to become the next Prime Minister after Zinaida Greceanîi stepped down; however, shortly before the second (unsuccessful) attempt to elect the next president on 3 June 2009, he left the PCRM, stating that it was not possible to reform the PCRM from within. Subsequently, he was offered membership and even leadership in the Democratic Party of Moldova, which had not cleared the electoral threshold in the first elections in 2009.

After July 2009 parliamentary election, alongside Vlad Filat, Mihai Ghimpu, and Serafim Urechean, Marian Lupu signed the Alliance For European Integration in a press-conference on 8 August 2009.

He was the candidate of the Alliance For European Integration for President of Moldova up until the election of current president Nicolae Timofti on 16 March 2012.

On 25 April 2013 Marian Lupu was sacked from position of President of Moldovan Parliament with 76 of 101 votes (communists, liberal-democrats, socialists and some liberal-reformators).

In controversy over ethnic and linguistic identity in Moldova, Marian Lupu identifies himself as Moldovan ethnic and supported retention of "Moldovan language" in Constitution as state language of Moldova.

Though in 2010, in TV talk-show „În profunzime” on ProTV Chișinău, Marian Lupu stated: "From scientifical point of view I speak Romanian, from political point of view - Moldovan!”.

After two years, in the same talk-show Lupu stated: „I changed my mind. Scientifically is not Romanian anymore, as I said previously, but Moldovan [language].”

Lupu supports idea of existence of the Moldovan people and Moldovan nation and the idea that Moldova is a distinct entity apart from Romania.

In 2010 Lupu stated „It is a pride for Moldova that its soldiers marched on the Red Square” in Moscow on the Victory Day (9 May).