Janos Boros

Janos Boros (Hungarian: János Boros, frequently misspelled in Romanian: Ianos Boros, Yanos Boros) is a Romanian politician of Hungarian ethnicity, member of the Hungarian minority party Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR). He has been the vice-mayor of his home-city (Cluj-Napoca) between 2000-2008.
As Vice Mayor of Cluj-Napoca
The first four years of him as the deputy mayor (2000-2004) was with the infamous nationalist mayor Gheorghe Funar. In that period there was little room for progress, as he was given limited liberty to carry out innovations, Janos Boros said in an interview with Szabadsag. He was a frequent target of ethnic provocations by Funar. One such provocation being the threat of getting suspended from his position by Funar, if he accepted a certificate from the then Hungarian government, which would validate his ancestry as Hungarian. Though the Hungarian certificate did not grant citizenship, Funar declared that it amounted to dual citizenship and hence all Hungarians who accepted that certificate would be expelled from their current position at the city hall. In spite of the hostile environment and stand-still in development - a result of Gheorghe Funar's governing - Janos Boros kept pushing for investment in infrastructure development, which Cluj-Napoca needed. His zeal for attracting investment, while Gheorghe Funar was opposed to it, landed him in many a controversy. The most notable opposition he faced was when he facilitated a Spanish real-estate investment company named A.C.E. to develop infrastructure in Cluj-Napoca. The media projected this issue as controversial at the time, but this push of Janos Boros to make Cluj-Napoca attractive for foreign investment soon became the trend, especially with the support of the next mayor Emil Boc.
Renewed mandate
In 2004 Gheorghe Funar lost the candidacy for mayorship, his successor was Emil Boc, member of the Democratic Liberal Party, while Janos Boros was re-elected and served another four years as deputy mayor. His four years of administration with Boc were marked by great economical growth. The city has witnessed numerous infrastructural, social and economical changes. With the support given by Emil Boc, Janos Boros initiated one of the first major infrastructural expansions in Cluj involving a northern ring road around the city. The Cluj-Napoca city administration realized that infrastructure development had to go hand in hand with social development. Cluj was facing a shortage of housing, so he further initiated and coordinated construction projects involving three new residential districts: The “Cartierul Oser”, “Cartierul Tineretului”,) and “Cartierul Lombului”. He contributed with his support to numerous other real-estate investment projects and has played the key role of the negotiator from the city hall with the investors. He also suggested changes in the structural organization of the police and proposed modifications to law enforcement. He headed the task force of the Cluj city council to facilitate return of lands confiscated by the previous communist regime to their rightful owners. This brought the protest of those who were in current possession of the lands to be restituted, who then filed numerous criminal complaints against him. The Romanian media called the mode of restitution scandalous.,. Though during the years of the Boc administration he no longer had to face constant ethnic provocations, his tenure was not fully void of ethnic disputes, either. Being the vice mayor he was tested time and again in his ability to reconcile disputes between the majority Romanian governance and the expectations of the minority Hungarians he represented. One such conflict was regarding restoration of the statue of Matthias Corvinus. The ex-mayor Gheorghe Funar was the one who started the controversy by changing the label of the statue of Matthias Corvinus from "Matthias Rex Hungarorum" (Matthias King of Hungarians) to just "Matthias Rex". Being supported by the liberal Emil Boc, Janos Boros was able to diplomatically reconcile differences between the governments of Hungary and Romania, who together decided to finance the restoration of the historical statue group (of Matthias King) from the centre of Cluj-Napoca. The issue of the statue has been a barometer to the sensitivity of the multi-ethnic groups cohabiting in Cluj-Napoca. It is wishful to think that this shared restoration brings a final resolution to Cluj-Napoca's ethnic conflicts, though efforts of leaders like Janos Boros and Emil Boc have eased tensions and have been successful in curtailing the nationalists from both Hungarian and Romanian sides to a great extent. The combined city administration of Emil Boc and Janos Boros also saw Cluj-Napoca become the second most important financial center in Romania and the foremost provider of software services. The city saw a surge of investments from foreign majors like Nokia investing 200 million Euros for a mobile phone factory in Cluj-Napoca. The favourable investment climate catalysed by Boros and Boc made companies like MOL, Aegon, Perfetti Van Melle, Bechtel, FrieslandCampina, Office Depot, Genpact and New Yorker have their regional and national head quarters in Cluj-Napoca, along with big Romanian companies like Banca Transilvania, Farmec, Jolidon, and Ursus breweries.
Biography
Janos Boros was born on 24 January 1948 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He started his career as civil engineer in 1972. When the communist regime in Romania was replaced by democracy in 1989, he was among the first members to join the UDMR party. His goals were to fight for a free Romanian democracy, and for the rights of the Hungarian minority in Romania. For several years between 1992-2000 he has been vice-president, as well as president of the UDMR party in Cluj county. For eight years in a row (between 1992-2000) he has been member of the Cluj-Napoca Municipality Council. In 2000 he accepted the position of vice-mayor of Cluj-Napoca and has served two mandates until 2008.
In 2008 he no longer contested for the vice mayor chair, instead he participated in the parliamentary elections running for Member of the Parliament position as representative of the UDMR party. According to UDMR statistics he gained the most votes among all the UDMR candidates in Cluj county, yet the newly adopted Romanian voting system - based on voting districts instead of party lists - has not allowed him to win a seat. Currently he is an investment and business consultant, director of SC ZAROM Ltd.
He is married and has two daughters, of 29 and 5 years. As he quotes in an interview with Szabadsag, his daughters help his soul to be young and to be open to new experiences. His main hobby is gardening.

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