Romanian Ambassador to Vienna Andrei Corbea Hoisie has resigned following a verdict that he collaborated with the Securitate, ex-dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s dreaded political police, Foreign minister Adrian Cioroianu announced on Saturday. Cioroianu defended Hoisie but said the resignation was “normal” in these circumstances.

“We had a face-to-face meeting in my office and Mr. Hoisie sumitted his resignation with honor.

I’m not even certain that he himself is sure he was involved in political police activities… Let’s say he is a scholar, who served as Ambassador to Vienna well, but when something like this comes out it is normal to make such a decision”, Cioroianu said in an interview for Realitatea TV news station.

Romania’s National College for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS) decided in late April that Hoisie was a collaborator of the Securitate.

Hoisie, a reputed Germanist philology expert and a laureate of the Herder Award in 1998, was named Ambassador to Vienna in summer 2005.