He was born in Sighişoara to Ion and Viorica Mitrea and, after living in Făgăraş and Braşov, moved to Bucharest, where he completed secondary studies at the city's Dr. Petru GrozaHigh School. Following army service in Medgidia, he studied transportation at the Politehnica University of Bucharest, specialising in road vehicles and graduating in 1981. From 1982 to 1983 he worked at a heavy machine factory in Constanţa, and then until 1989 he held a similar position in Bucharest, where he was a director on his factory floor. Following the 1989 Revolution, Mitrea became president of the trade unionFrăţia, and after Frăţia merged with another union in 1993, he continued until 1995 as head of the National Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Romania - Brotherhood. Joining the PDSR, he was elected to the Chamber on its lists in 1996. In 2000, after the PDSR came to power, Mitrea became Minister of Transport, serving until 2004, when the party lost elections. As minister, his achievements included modernising several rail stations, continuing work on the A2 motorway, rebuilding the northern jetty of the Port of Constanţa and completing Bucharest apartment blocks that had been left unfinished since 1989. In April 2008, the National Anticorruption Directorate charged him with receiving bribes, instigating forgery in official documents and using forgery as minister, and Mitrea resigned his Chamber seat that September after his colleagues stopped the indictment from moving forward on grounds of parliamentary immunity; he wished to fight the charges and clear his name. After serving as the coordinator of the PSD's successful 2008 election campaign, Mitrea won a seat in the Senate. At the 2012 election, he returned to the Chamber as one of its vice presidents and a member of its European affairs committee. In October 2014, Mitrea received a two-year prison sentence in a corruption case involving construction at his mother's house; in response, he vowed to appeal. His sentence was upheld the following February, when he was incarcerated at Poarta Albă. Within his party, Mitrea has served as Vice President, Secretary General and member of the General Executive Bureau. From 1996 to 2000, he was a vice president, quaestor and secretary of the Chamber of Deputies, also serving as a vice president from 2004 to 2008. From 1991 to 1992, he served on the executive bureau of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. Ideologically, Mitrea is an avowed leftist but also an anti-communist, and he has worked to distance the PSD from its image as a successor to the Romanian Communist Party.
