From 1996 to 2005, the party was a member of the Socialist International (SI). Its official name was Democratic Party - National Salvation Front until 2000, when it officially shortened its name only to the Democratic Party. From 2004 to 2007, the PD was the junior member of the governing Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), although according to many Romanian opinion polls of the time, it remained the most popular of the two parties. Although it had to formally suspend his leadership to the party when elected president in 2004, the PD was largely associated with former Romanian president Traian Băsescu.
In advance of the 2004 elections, the PD joined forces with the National Liberal Party (PNL) to create the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), whose main purpose was to fight the all-dominating PSD. The DA managed to win around 32% of the votes in both Chambers, not enough for a majority and about 6% less than the PSD. Together with its liberal allies, the UDMR/RMDSZ, and the Conservative Party (PC), the PD was part of the governing coalition until April 2007.
From mid-2005, the PD's relations with the PNL became strained due to an ongoing open conflict between former President Băsescu and then Prime MinisterCălin Popescu-Tăriceanu, who was also the chairman of the PNL. Previously, after his presidential victory in 2004, Băsescu appointed Popescu-Tăriceanu as Prime Minister. Although he wanted to, he could not constitutionally dismiss him; at least, it took him a while to do so. On 1 April 2007, Tăriceanu dismissed the ministers of the PD and formed a minority government.[13]
Under the leadership of Petre Roman, the PD represented the reformist social democratic wing resulting from the split of the FSN in 1992. Despite the clear ideological positioning, several observers did not notice substantial programmatic differences between the documents presented by the reformist and left-wing conservative currents that confronted each other during the national conference of the FSN in March 1992. In the following years, the PD ran against Iliescu’s group, represented by the FDSN, PDSR and PSD parties, to win the same type of electorate linked to the centre-left.[14] Petre Roman’s party was, however, distinguished by the stance of its president, who stressed his supposed attachment to a true social democracy, far removed from the influences of proletarian socialism inherited from Communist dictatorship.[15] Although it approached the centre-right forces, with which it formed a coalition government between 1996 and 2000, the party continued to share some of its objectives with the centre-left parties that were in opposition.[16] As the direct successor of the FSN, the PD borrowed both its symbol, a rose,[17] and its identifying colour, blue.[18][19]
After the PD joined the Socialist International in 1996, it continued to maintain the social democratic outlook even after the election of Traian Băsescu as president, who was elected head of the party in 2001 with the motion «Strong Romania - Social democratic Romania». The party made clear that its policy should be oriented towards the needs of the people, supporting a competitive socio-economic framework but focusing on social protection and security of citizens.[20]
After Băsescu took over the leadership of the Democratic Party, it successfully used anti-communist, anti-corruption, anti-PDSR and pro-European populist rhetoric and strategies.[21] While Petre Roman wanted a conditional cooperation with the ruling Social Democracy Party of Romania (PDSR), Băsescu opted for a total, uncompromising opposition to the PDSR and its successor, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), despite the fact that both had, nominally, the same political ideology.[22][23]
After 2003, a new approach to the centre-right, with the birth of an alliance with the PNL, contributed to a decisive change in its doctrinal orientation. In the 2004 elections, Traian Băsescu’s pro-European and anti-corruption message reached mainly young people and residents of the urban areas and the north-west of the country, an electorate traditionally linked to the centre-right.[24][25] Favored by Băsescu and the new president Emil Boc, the shift to the centre-right was officially realized in 2005, with the adoption of a political program explicitly based on popular and conservative doctrine.[26][27]
Băsescu at the 2006 EPP Congress, after PD joined the party
The political doctrine of the Democratic Party (PD) shifted from social democracy to social conservatism in 2005. The party supported the consolidation of the free market and is supportive of Romania's flat tax rate of 16%. The party also supported reforming the Romanian Constitution in order to bring about decentralization in administration and give greater power to the eight development regions.
In terms of European politics, the Democratic Party (PD):
Supported a common EU defence and security policy;
Supported a partnership between the US and the EU, where the EU is an "equal and critical" partner.
The motion that allowed the appointment of Boc, «Prosperous Romania, democratic Romania» («România prosperă, România democrată») was approved by 3,553 votes to 114 and provided for an important ideological reorientation, by adhering to the Christian-democratic popular doctrine at the expense of the social democratic one, officially transforming the party into a centre-right formation, a choice which according to Boc reflected the political lines adopted by the PD in previous years.[28][29] The party group which would have preferred to continue to uphold the social democratic ideology, represented by vice-presidents Cezar Preda and Radu Berceanu, was unable to present any candidacy for the presidency, as it was not supported by at least ten branches, as provided for in the Statutes.[30]
As Boc pointed out, the document was based on the recognition of the need for a market economy and support for social justice principles. According to his statements, the new programme was designed to adapt the official ideological positioning to the political line of action pursued by the PD in the years following the election of Băsescu. According to Boc, the text included 80% of the document «Strong Romania forte - Social democratic Romania».[31] In 2007 the PD self-defined itself as a «centrist-republican party, with a modern European doctrine whose principles are: an efficient, humane and supportive market economy, modern and quality public services, extensive, active and precise social protection in accordance with an independent justice, accessible and safe».[32] Adherence to popular doctrine led to the adoption of orange, borrowed from the EPP, as the official colour alongside blue.[33] The Democratic Party also started to endorse neoliberal economic policies.[34]
According to some analysts, the new ideological orientation was also determined by political dynamics at European level. In 2005 the Party of European Socialists refused to recognize the PD as a full member, but admitted the PSD instead. The refusal, accompanied by an attitude of the PES aimed at favouring the PSD also in internal political matters, had led the PD to turn to the European People’s Party which, on the other hand, needed new members to strengthen its political position in the European Parliament as opposed to the socialists.[35] Beyond the ideological repositioning, after 2004 the PD was above all a pragmatic party and an expression of Băsescu’s presidential policy.
Romania's political framework is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic where the Prime Minister is the head of government while the President, according to the constitution, has a more symbolic role, is responsible for the foreign policy, signs certain decrees, approves laws promulgated by the parliament, and nominates the head of government. Romania has a democratic, multi-party system, with legislative power vested in the government and the two chambers of the Parliament, more specifically the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. From 1948 until 1989, the communist rule political structure took place in the framework of a one-party socialist republic governed by the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) as its only legal party.
After the Communist rulership ended and the former Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu was executed in the midst of the bloody Romanian Revolution of December 1989, the National Salvation Front (FSN) seized power, led by Ion Iliescu. The FSN transformed itself into a massive political party in short time and overwhelmingly won the general election of May 1990, with Iliescu as president. These first months of 1990 were marked by violent protests and counter-protests, involving most notably the tremendously violent and brutal coal miners of the Jiu Valley which were called by Iliescu himself and the FSN to crush peaceful protesters in the University Square in Bucharest.
The Social Democratic Party is the largest political party in Romania, though in the European Parliament, it is the second largest by total number of political representatives, after the National Liberal Party (PNL). It is also the largest social democratic political party in the country. It was founded by Ion Iliescu, Romania's first democratically elected president at the 1990 Romanian general election. It is currently part of the National Coalition for Romania (CNR), which is a big tent grand coalition comprising also the National Liberal Party (PNL). The CNR formerly included the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) until mid June 2023.
Liberalism and radicalism are important political movements in Romania. Many political parties from these traditions have had important historical roles and substantial support, including representation in the Parliament of Romania. Not all Romanian political parties relevant to this tradition have explicitly described themselves as liberal or radical.
Traian Băsescu is a Romanian conservative politician who served as President of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian Minister of Transport on multiple occasions between 1991 and 2000, and as Mayor of Bucharest from 2000 to 2004. Additionally, he was elected as leader of the Democratic Party (PD) in 2001.
The Democratic National Salvation Front was a Romanian political party formed by former President Ion Iliescu and his supporters stemming from the National Salvation Front (FSN) on 7 April 1992. It was the result of the breakup of the previously ruling FSN during the early 1990s.
The Justice and Truth Alliance was a political alliance comprising two political parties in Romania, namely the centre-right liberal National Liberal Party (PNL) and the initially left-wing Democratic Party (PD), which later switched to center-right ideology.
The National Salvation Front was the most important political organization formed during the Romanian Revolution in December 1989, which became the governing body of Romania in the first weeks after the collapse of the communist regime. It subsequently became a political party, the largest post-communist party, and won the 1990 election with 66% of the national vote, under the leadership of then-President Ion Iliescu, who was elected with 85% of the vote.
The Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party is a agrarian and Christian democratic political party in Romania. It claims to be the rightful successor of the interwar National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), created from the merger of the Romanian National Party (PNR) from the then Austro-Hungarian-ruled Transylvania and the Peasants' Party (PȚ) from the Romanian Old Kingdom.
The Conservative Party was a conservative political party in Romania. It was founded in 1991, approximately two years after the fall of Communism in Romania, originally under the name Romanian Humanist Party. From 2005 until 3 December 2006, the party was a junior member of the Government of Romania. The party adopted the name Conservative Party on 7 May 2005. Subsequently, a little bit more than a decade after, more specifically in June 2015, it merged with the Liberal Reformist Party (PLR) to form the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE).
Emil Boc is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 22 December 2008 until 6 February 2012 and is the current Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, the largest city of Transylvania, where he was first elected in July 2004. Boc was also the president of the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL), which proposed and supported him as Prime Minister in late 2008, from December 2004 until July 2012.
Parliamentary elections were held in Romania on 30 November 2008. The Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) won three more seats than PSD in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, although the alliance headed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) won more votes and a fractionally higher vote share. The two parties subsequently formed a governing coalition with Emil Boc of the PDL as Prime Minister.
Presidential elections were held in Romania in 2009. They were the sixth presidential elections held in post-1989 Romania. The first round took place on 22 November, with a run-off round between the top two candidates Traian Băsescu and Mircea Geoană on 6 December 2009. Although most exit polls suggested a victory for Geoană in the runoff, the authorities declared Băsescu the narrow winner with 50.33% of the votes. To date, it is the closest presidential election in the political history of Romania.
Bogdan Niculescu-Duvăz was a Romanian politician and architect. A member and twice minister of the Democratic Party (PD), he joined the Social Democratic Party in 2003, and was again a minister in 2004. Niculescu-Duvăz was a member of the Chamber of Deputies between 1990 and 2016.
The Democratic Liberal Party was a liberal-conservative political party in Romania. The party was formed on 15 December 2007, when the Democratic Party (PD) merged with the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD). On 17 November 2014 the PDL officially merged into the National Liberal Party (PNL), ceasing to exist. The PDL was associated with Traian Băsescu, who was previously leader of the PD and President of Romania from 2004 to 2014.
Lucian Croitoru is a Romanian economist. On October 15, 2009, following the defeat of Emil Boc's government through a motion of no confidence, President Traian Băsescu nominated Croitoru to be Prime Minister of Romania. The nomination was opposed by a majority of Parliament, which adopted a declaration asking for his withdrawal, and vowing support for the candidature of Klaus Iohannis. Croitoru assembled a proposed cabinet, but this was voted down by Parliament on November 4.
The National Union for the Progress of Romania is a political party in Romania. The party was formed in March 2010 by independents who had broken away from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) to support President Traian Băsescu. Tension began soon after the party's formation between former PSD and PNL members over the distribution of leadership positions and the political direction of the new party, with former PSD members dominating. The first party congress to elect its leaders was on 1 May 2010.
The Romanian Social Democratic Party was a social democratic political party in Romania. Founded in 1990, shortly after the fall of the Communist party rule in Romania in December 1989, it claimed to be the direct successor of the historical Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSD) which existed between 1927 and 1948, until it merged with the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) to create the Romanian Workers' Party (PMR).
References
↑ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2004). "Romania". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 30 November 2004.
↑ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2004). "Romania". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 30 April 2006.
Ioan, Scurtu ș.a., "Enciclopedia partidelor politice din România 1859–2003", Editura Meronia, București, 2003.
Florin-Vasile, Șomlea, "Partidele populare din țările Uniunii Europene", Editura Cartimpex, Cluj-Napoca, 2007.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
