The National Liberal Party is a liberal-conservative political party in Romania. Re-founded in mid January 1990, shortly after the Revolution of 1989 which culminated in the fall of communism in Romania, it claims the legacy of the major political party of the same name, active between 1875 and 1947 in the Kingdom of Romania. Based on this historical legacy, it often presents itself as the first formally constituted political party in the country and the oldest of its kind from the family of European liberal parties as well.
Klaus Iohannis, sometimes briefly referred to as KWI in the Romanian press, is a Romanian politician, physicist, and former physics teacher who has been serving as the president of Romania since 2014. He became the president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) in 2014, after previously serving as the leader of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR) between 2002 and 2013. Prior to entering national politics, he was a physics teacher at the Samuel von Brukenthal National College in his native Sibiu.
Dacian Julien Cioloș is a Romanian agronomist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from November 2015 to January 2017. He previously served as Agriculture Minister under Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu between October 2007 and December 2008. In November 2009, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso nominated him to be the next Agriculture Commissioner, a position he assumed in February 2010 and held until his term expired in November 2014. In November 2015, President Klaus Iohannis named him Prime Minister; Cioloș assumed office after receiving approval from Parliament.
Nicușor Dan is a Romanian activist, mathematician, former member of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania as well as founder and former leader of the Romanian political party Save Romania Union (USR). He is currently serving as the Mayor of Bucharest following the 2020 Romanian local elections as independent politician.
The Save Romania Union is a liberal political party active in Romania, currently the third largest party in the Parliament of Romania with 41 deputies and 20 senators, and a fifth at local level nationwide, after the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) and the People's Movement Party (PMP), two smaller centre-right political parties in the country.
Presidential elections were held in Romania on 10 November 2019, with a second round held on 24 November 2019. They were the eighth presidential elections held in post-1989 Romania. Incumbent President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, first elected in 2014, was eligible for re-election. He subsequently defeated former Prime Minister and ex-leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Viorica Dăncilă in the second round of the election by a landslide, receiving 66 percent of the vote – the second-highest vote share on record in this type of elections after Ion Iliescu.
The Party of Liberty, Unity and Solidarity was a pro-European, liberal political party established on 26 October 2018, whose president was Dacian Cioloș, former Prime Minister of Romania from 2015 until 2017, elected on 26 January 2019. The party had its origin in the Movement Romania Together (MRÎ), a project which they gave up due to the setting up delay in court. The party merged in 2021 with the Save Romania Union (USR) with which it has been in a political alliance called 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance from 2019 to 2021, then formally activating as a sole, unified party known as USR PLUS.
A consultative referendum took place in Romania on 26 May 2019, on the same day as the European Parliament elections, about whether to prohibit amnesties and pardons for corruption offences, as well as whether to prohibit the Government from passing emergency ordinances concerning the judiciary and to extend the right to appeal against them to the Constitutional Court. Both proposals were approved by wide margins.
The Romanian component of the 2024 European Parliament election will be held on 9 June 2024. This will be the fifth European Parliament election to be held in Romania.
Florin Vasile Cîțu is a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between December 2020 and November 2021. Between September 2021 and April 2022, he was also the leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL).
Vlad Vasile Voiculescu is a Romanian politician and former Romanian Minister of Health in the Cîțu Cabinet whose term lasted from 23 December 2020 until he was revoked on 14 April 2021 by PNL Prime Minister Florin Cîțu. He formerly served in the same position in the Cioloș Cabinet between May 2016 and January 2017.
USR PLUS was a Romanian progressive, liberal, and centrist political alliance active between 2019 and 2021. Established on 2 February 2019 solely as an electoral alliance between the political parties Save Romania Union (USR) and the Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (PLUS) it was initially called 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance. The alliance was formed to participate together in the May 2019 European Parliament election in Romania.
Events from the year 2021 in Romania.
Cătălin Drulă is a Romanian politician who currently serves as the president of the Save Romania Union (USR) political party, and as an incumbent member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, elected as a deputy for Timiș County at the 2020 Romanian legislative election.
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Romania by 21 March 2025, three months after the term of the incumbent legislature of the Romanian Parliament expires. However, the elections are most probably scheduled to be held during late 2024.
Presidential elections will be held in Romania in either mid- or late November 2024, with an eventual second round to be held in late November or early December 2024 as well. They will be the ninth presidential elections held in post-1989 Romania. As the Romanian Constitution allows a maximum of two presidential terms, incumbent President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, first elected in 2014 and then re-elected in 2019, is not eligible for re-election. His second term will normally end in December 2024.
A political crisis began on 1 September 2021 in Romania, engulfing both major coalition partners of the Cîțu Cabinet, namely the conservative-liberal National Liberal Party (PNL) and the progressive-liberal Save Romania Union (USR). The crisis also involved former prime minister Ludovic Orban (PNL), who was set to face Prime Minister Florin Cîțu (PNL) in a leadership election during the party congress on 25 September, with the latter eventually replacing the former. Orban would eventually resign from his position as President of the Chamber of Deputies, with him and his supporters subsequently splitting from the PNL, in order to form the Force of the Right (FD).
Force of the Right, sometimes translated as Right's Force or Right Force, is a liberal-conservative political party in Romania founded in December 2021 by Ludovic Orban, former National Liberal Party (PNL) president and former Prime Minister of Romania between 2019 and 2020, in opposition to the current leadership of the PNL which is currently officially led by Nicolae Ciucă and unofficially by Klaus Iohannis.
The Ciucă Cabinet was the 132nd government of Romania led by former Romanian Land Forces army general Nicolae Ciucă from 25 November 2021 to 12 June 2023.
Renewing Romania's European Project is a social liberal and pro-European political party in Romania. It is a splinter of the Save Romania Union (USR) and is currently led by Dragoș Pîslaru and Ramona Strugariu as co-presidents. The party was founded in May 2022, in opposition to USR's current leadership under Cătălin Drulă. The party is mostly associated with former technocratic Prime Minister and former USR president Dacian Cioloș, who founded the party. On 7 May 2023, Pîslaru and Strugariu were voted co-presidents at the latest congress of the party.
