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The wife of former liberal leader Mircea Ionescu-Quintus died Monday morning at the age of 94, according to sources close to the family, cited by Agerpres. The nonagenarian died in the family home in Ploieşti. The one to whom Mircea Ionescu-Quintus “my iron lady” suffered a stroke just a few days ago. The cited source revealed that his son in the country is expected to set the funeral time.
Viorica Quintus died 3 years after the death of Mircea Ionescu-Quintus, writer, politician and former Minister of Justice. He passed away in September 2017, at the age of 100.
Who was Ionescu-Quintus?
In 2017, Mircea Ionescu-Quintus was honorary president of the National Liberal Party. It remains in Romanian politics one of the strongest symbols of liberalism in Romania. Ionescu-Quintus has been a member of the PNL for more than 80 years, a senator and a former president of the Senate. He was also a writer known and appreciated for his epigrams.
Throughout his life, the legendary liberal leader went through the most important periods in the history of Romania: he caught two World Wars and the Revolution of December 1989. He lived under the regime of Charles II, respected Marshal Ion Antonescu and took the Dear Queen Maria and King Ferdinand. Because of his political affiliation, he suffered in communist prisons and on the Canal.
His model in politics was IG Duca (not – Liberal Prime Minister assassinated by legionaries in 1933). At the same time, the great scholar Nicolae Iorga was one of those who were present in his career with valuable advice.
At age 19 he joined NLP
Born in 1917, Mircea Ionescu Quintus entered NLP at age 19 and fought in World War II, being a political prisoner during the communist period. After the Revolution, he served as president of the PNL and Minister of Justice. He also had one mandate as a deputy and two as a senator. Mircea Ionescu-Quintus comes from a family of old liberals. His father, Ion Ionescu-Quintus, had 9 NLP parliamentary seats.
His son followed in his footsteps as a lawyer, but also in politics. During the interwar period, he attended courses organized at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest. After graduating in 1938, he became a lawyer. Another mentor of his was Gheorghe Tătărăscu, who said he was the one who managed to keep him away from the Legionary Movement.
Viorica, the Iron Lady by Ionescu-Quintus
In 1947 he married Viorica, who accompanied him in all his political activities, being also a member of the PNL since 1945. He was also linked to the fact that Viorica came from a family with a liberal tradition. About the choice of his heart, Ionescu-Quintus used to say that it was she who made him endure in life, in times of difficulty for his marriage. He called Viorica Quintus “my iron lady”, in such a suggestive metaphor for their connection.
His son, Răzvan Ionescu-Quintus, has been living in Germany with his wife for almost 40 years and, at the time of the Liberal leader’s death, the two had no descendants. Once the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) came to power, Ionescu-Quintus spent several years in camps, including the one on the Danube Canal – Black Sea,
In 1954, when he was released from the Canal, he was recruited by Security and later said that he did not have the power to reject the former political police. Regarding this issue, he also said that he did not bother anyone through the statements given to the Securitate. In 2000, when he was president of the Senate, CNSAS made public that he had been a security informant, but the Liberal challenged the decision. Two years later, the court ruled that Mircea Ionescu-Quintus did not participate in political surveillance.
In 2002, Ion Iliescu awarded him the “Star of Romania” at the rank of knight. In 2009, he received the rank of retired Brigadier General from Traian Băsescu, and in 2017, Klaus Iohannis awarded him the Order of the “Star of Romania” as an officer. At the time of writing, there was no message on the NLP Facebook page in memory of Viorica Quintus. In addition, this black news was not marked on the Facebook account of Prime Minister Ludovic Orban.
Photo: Mircea Ionescu-Quintus and Viorica Quintus
source: Agerpres
