Romania’s Ruling Party Backs Popular TV Host For Lawmaker Seat

Trandafir will run against conservative Liliana Minca, former head of the Romanian Lottery. Minca is also endorsed by the opposition Social Democratic Party. Opposition liberals said they will not have a candidate for the MP seat.

A lawmaker seat in the Chamber of Deputies, in a constituency of capital Bucharest, has been vacant since early February, when conservative Daniela Popa resigned and accepted a position on the board of the country’s insurance regulator CSA.

Trandafir, 42, is an Arab language major graduate of Bucharest’s Foreign Languages Faculty and has made a name for herself by hosting popular TV entertainment shows on various networks. She put her television career on the back-burner in 2008 but said late 2009 she would host a show to air on local TV stations in the country.