Zinaida Greceanîi facts for kids

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Greceanîi in 2014
Member of the Moldovan Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 July 2009
Parliamentary group	Party of Communists Party of Socialists Bloc of Communists and Socialists
President of the Moldovan Parliament
In office 8 June 2019 – 26 July 2021
President	Igor Dodon Maia Sandu
Prime Minister	Maia Sandu Ion Chicu Aureliu Ciocoi (acting)
Deputy	See list Ion Ceban Mihai Popșoi Alexandru Slusari Monica Babuc Vlad Batrîncea Vladimir Vitiuc
Preceded by	Andrian Candu
Succeeded by	Igor Grosu
Leader of the Party of Socialists
In office 18 December 2016 – 30 December 2020
Preceded by	Igor Dodon
Succeeded by	Igor Dodon
7th Prime Minister of Moldova
In office 31 March 2008 – 14 September 2009
President	Vladimir Voronin Mihai Ghimpu (acting)
Deputy	See list Igor Dodon Andrei Stratan Victor Stepaniuc Valentin Mejinschi Iurie Roșca
Preceded by	Vasile Tarlev
Succeeded by	Vitalie Pîrlog (acting)
First Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova
In office 10 October 2005 – 31 March 2008
President	Vladimir Voronin
Prime Minister	Vasile Tarlev
Preceded by	Vasile Iovv
Succeeded by	Igor Dodon
Minister of Finance
In office 26 February 2002 – 10 October 2005
President	Vladimir Voronin
Prime Minister	Vasile Tarlev
Preceded by	Mihail Manoli
Succeeded by	Mihail Pop
First Deputy Minister of Finance
In office 26 September 2001 – 26 February 2002
President	Vladimir Voronin
Prime Minister	Vasile Tarlev
Minister	Mihail Manoli
Deputy Minister of Finance
In office 19 January 2000 – 26 September 2001
President	Petru Lucinschi Vladimir Voronin
Prime Minister	Dumitru Braghiș Vasile Tarlev
Minister	Mihail Manoli
Personal details
Born	Zinaida Bujor (1956-02-07) 7 February 1956 (age 68) Metalist, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia)
Citizenship	Moldova
Political party	Party of Communists (before 2011) Party of Socialists (2011–present)
Spouse	Alexei Greceanîi
Children	2
Alma mater	Moldova State University

Zinaida Greceanîi (pronunciation: [ɡreˈtʃe̯an[unsupported input]]; born 7 February 1956) is a Moldovan politician. She was the President of the Moldovan Parliament between 8 June 2019 to 26 July 2021. Greceanîi was previously also the Prime Minister of Moldova from 31 March 2008 to 14 September 2009. She led the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) from 2016 to 2020 and was previously a member of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM). She was Moldova's first female Prime Minister and was the second female Communist head of government in Europe, preceded only by Premier Milka Planinc of former Yugoslavia. She has been referred to by her colleagues in PSRM as the "Moldovan Margaret Thatcher".

Background

Greceanîi was born in Tomsk Oblast in Siberia in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union. Her parents, Marioara Ursu (1918–1993) and Petrea Bujor (1906–1996), were deported in 1951 from Cotiujeni in the north of Moldova during Operation North because they were Jehovah's Witnesses. Her brother died during the deportation. Zinaida Greceanîi and her parents came back to Cotiujeni only in 1968. She was baptised as Eastern Orthodox by her grandmother on mother's side.

She graduated from the Financial and Economic College in the capital Chișinău and Moldova State University.

Greceanîi is married to Alexei Greceanîi and has two children.

Career

In the mid 1990s, Greceanîi was employed as a head of the Department at the Ministry of Finance. She was Deputy Minister of Finances from 2000 to 2001 and First Deputy Minister of Finances from 2001 to 2002. President Vladimir Voronin appointed Greceanîi as Interim Minister of Finances on 8 February 2002 and then appointed her as Minister of Finances on 26 February 2002 as the only woman in the cabinet.

In the summer 2005, Greceanîi won the 2005 Chișinău election, but it was declared invalid because of the low turnout. On 10 October 2005, Greceanîi was appointed by Voronin as First Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova on 10 October 2005.

According to a 2019 opinion poll, Greceanii was the second most trusted politician in Moldova, and according to some other polls she was given the sixth and at the eighth rank accordingly.

Prime minister

Greceanîi with former Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in June 2008.

Following the resignation of Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev on 19 March 2008, President Vladimir Voronin nominated Greceanîi as prime minister. The Cabinet of Zinaida Greceanîi was approved by Parliament on 31 March; it received 56 votes in favor out of the 101 members of Parliament. According to Greceanîi, the immediate focus of her Cabinet would on "freedom of the media, an active dialogue with civil society and an independent judiciary". She increased the number of women ministers from 2 to 5 (25 per cent) and followed up on laws of gender equality.

Greceanîi resigned on 9 September 2009, saying she was unable to simultaneously hold the posts of prime minister and member of parliament at the same time. On 10 September 2009, Moldova's President Vladimir Voronin signed a decree appointing Justice Minister Vitalie Pîrlog as acting prime minister from 14 September until a new government was formed.

Events of 7 April 2009

Zinaida Greceanîi, the prime minister of the Republic of Moldova, within the events of 7 April 2009, became famous in the public space by her symbolic statements, that the policemen are ready to use the weapons against the protesters, and came with the message: "The organizers of the biggest crime are ready to use children in the next days. If this will happen, to avoid casualties would be very hard. The police will use all necessary measure to defence the constitutionality, including the weapons". Six years later, in April 2015, Greceanîi stated at the Interpol TV-show, broadcast by TV7, that she did right when she declared in 2009 "that there will be bloodshed".

In the investigation of the events of 7 April Zinaida Greceanîi, who has remained in history by her statement, when she begged the country's "mothers" to keep their children at home, because of the weapons that had to be used. In this respect, she has been heard once by the prosecutors, and event then, as a witness.

Moldovan presidential election, May–June 2009

Her party won the April 2009 election with 49.48% of the vote and she won one of the 60 seats of the PCRM in the Moldovan Parliament. She was twice an unsuccessful candidate of the PCRM for the post of the President of Moldova, on 20 May and 3 June 2009, lacking only one vote to obtain the required 3/5 (61) of the votes. In both rounds, alternative male candidates were also nominated by the PCRM and obtained 0 votes and Greceanîi all 60 Communist party votes.

New elections were held and after the July 2009 parliamentary election, Greceanîi again won a seat in the Moldovan Parliament, but the PCRM only got 48 seats and the opposition to the Communist Party, the Alliance for European Integration, agreed to create a governing coalition.

Leaving the PCRM and joining the PSRM

In autumn 2011, Zianida Greceanîi, together with Igor Dodon, left PCRM and joined the Party of Socialists (PSRM) led by Veronica Abramciuc. In 2011, the party leader became Igor Dodon and stayed in this position until 2016. After the Republic of Moldova president election, the acting leader of the Party of Socialists became Zinaida Greceanîi, who on 18 December 2016 was officially elected as party chairman. At the elections of 30 November 2014 Zinaida Greceanîi was at the top position of the PSRM electoral list.

Subsequent career

She contested the mayoralty of Chișinău at the 2015 local elections, where she progressed to a run-off against incumbent Dorin Chirtoacă. Ultimately she was unsuccessful, losing to Chirtoacă 46.56% to 53.46% on 28 June.

On 18 November 2016, she was elected Chairman of the Socialist Party, taking office on 23 December 2016. She was elected as 12th President of the Moldovan Parliament 8 June 2019, which sparked a brief 8-day constitutional crisis in the country.

See also

In Spanish: Zinaida Greceanîi para niños

• Politics of Moldova