Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu shared details from the beginning of his career, reaffirming that he was sent to work by his father immediately after not getting into college.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu spoke on Antena3 about his youth and first jobs.
He completed high school when Romania was still under communism, in 1986. After passing the baccalaureate exam with an average of 7.03, and completing the mandatory military service, the current prime minister wanted to enroll in college but was not admitted, being sent by his father to get a job.
"When I failed to get into college, immediately he sent me to work, both before and after the military service the same thing: 'hey, you couldn't do it, go, I'm not going to hold you back!'", recounted the current prime minister.
However, he did not give up on the idea of attending college, and in 1990, the first private university in Romania appeared: the Ecological University of Bucharest. In 1991, he began studying at the Law Faculty there.
"I worked... in college, I worked. I worked at a Romanian-Israeli company, More Trading. I used to go and handle all the company's export documents at the Constanta port. At that time, they were with guarantees.
I had to go and complete the export documents, and with those documents, you return to the bank to release the guarantee deposited by the business owner. I worked... I even slept in parking lots. I was young, I didn't have any problems. Later on, I started my own private company, I worked, I had grocery stores. At one point, I decided I wanted something else," Marcel Ciolacu further recounted.
He graduated from college in 1995.
"In 1995, I completed my university studies, but because the college was not yet accredited, I postponed obtaining the degree. You know how it is when you interrupt school, you get caught up in work, you want to do this and that. In addition, Filip was born...," Ciolacu shared.
He only defended his thesis 9 years later, in 2004. These were the first years when the Ecological University organized thesis sessions after being accredited by the Ministry of Education a year earlier. Until then, the thesis for university graduates was defended at a state university.
"I also have a bachelor's degree from the university, where I defended my thesis and received a grade of 9," said Marcel Ciolacu in a video posted on social media.
His thesis was on Transportation Law, which Marcel Ciolacu says he "really liked".
"I think this is where my obsession with development, building highways, and modernizing railways comes from. I was just starting out with the legislation in this field. And it changed tremendously after Romania's accession to the EU," stated the current prime minister.
After graduating in law, Ciolacu worked in the field as a legal advisor until 2007, after which he held the position of executive director at Urbis Serv S.R.L, according to the CV published on the Chamber of Deputies' website.
Additionally, Prime Minister Ciolacu also pursued postgraduate studies, completing a Master's degree in Public Sector Management at SNSPA in 2012.
"I also have a master's degree, with a grade of 8.66. You can imagine I tried everything. I took all the boxes, everything," Ciolacu recently stated in an interview on Romania TV.
Marcel Ciolacu admitted to having a tutor for economics and English. He confessed to having reservations in international relations, where he did not feel comfortable due to the language, mentioning that he still has an English teacher and an economics teacher.
"It's each one's struggle with themselves, to be better every day," said Ciolacu.