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Valentin Marian Ionescu (born September 3, 1961, in Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian lawyer, former presidential advisor to the President of Romania Emil Constantinescu (between September 5, 1997, and December 12, 1997) and subsequently Minister of Privatization (December 1997 - April 14, 1998).
Ionescu graduated in 1991 from the University of Bucharest's Law School with a diploma thesis titled “Leasing Operations in International Trade”. In 1992, Ionescu became politically active in the Youth Organization of NPP-CD (National Peasants Party - Christian and Democrat).
From January 1997 until his nomination as presidential advisor (September 1997), he was the President of the National Privatization Agency (NPA). In this capacity and later on as Minister of Privatization, Ionescu initiated several policies, such as the Leasing Act, Franchising Act, Commodity Exchange Act, Venture Capital Act, as a means to supporting the development and consolidation of the private sector in Romania. Moreover, he initiated the review of the entire privatization legal framework in the manufacturing industry and services, which is claimed to have given impetus to the denationalization of the economy between 1997 and 1999. After the setting up of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Radu Vasile, Ionescu withdrew from the centre of political power.[ citation needed ]
In 1999, Ionescu left the NPP-CD and became active in the URF (Union of the Rightist Forces). In 2000, after the conclusion of the alliance between URF and NPP-CD, Ionescu joined the National Liberal Party (NLP). He was a member of the Party leadership between September 2002 and February 2005.[ citation needed ]
Since 2007, Ionescu has been a member of the PD-L (Democrat-Liberal Party).[ citation needed ]
Romania's political framework is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic where the Prime Minister is the head of government while the President represents the country internationally, signs some decrees, approves laws promulgated by parliament and nominations as head of state. Romania has a multi-party system, with legislative power vested in the government and the two chambers of Parliament: 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 social democratic political party in Romania and also the largest overall party in the country. It was founded by Ion Iliescu, Romania's first democratically elected president at the 1990 Romanian general election.
Theodor Dumitru Stolojan is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from September 1991 to November 1992. An economist by training, he was also one of the presidents of the National Liberal Party (PNL) before being the founding leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) and then the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL). He was a Member of the European Parliament for Romania, representing the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) and then the National Liberal Party.
Take or Tache Ionescu was a Romanian centrist politician, journalist, lawyer and diplomat, who also enjoyed reputation as a short story author. Starting his political career as a radical member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), he joined the Conservative Party in 1891, and became noted as a social conservative expressing support for several progressive and nationalist tenets. Ionescu is generally viewed as embodying the rise of middle-class politics inside the early 20th century Kingdom of Romania, and, throughout the period, promoted a project of Balkan alliances while calling for measures to incorporate the Romanian-inhabited Austro-Hungarian regions of Transylvania, Banat and Bukovina. Representing his own faction inside the Conservative Party, he clashed with the group's leadership in 1907–1908, and consequently created and led his own Conservative-Democratic Party.
The National Liberal Party is the largest centre-right conservative-liberal and 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 legacy, it often presents itself as the first formally constituted political party in the country and the oldest party from the family of European liberal parties.
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist party in Romania. Successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system of the Kingdom of Romania. After being outlawed in 1924, the PCR remained a minor and illegal grouping for much of the interwar period, and submitted to direct Comintern control. During the 1920s and 1930s, most of its activists were imprisoned or took refuge in the Soviet Union, which led to the creation of competing factions which at times came in open conflict. This did not prevent the party from participating in the political life of the country through various front organizations, most notably the Peasant Workers' Bloc. The Communist Party emerged as a powerful actor on the Romanian political scene in August 1944, when it became involved in the royal coup that toppled the pro-Nazi government of Ion Antonescu. With support from Soviet occupational forces, the PCR was able to pressure King Michael I into abdicating, and establish the Romanian People's Republic in December 1947.
Traian Băsescu is a Romanian 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.
Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 29 December 2004 to 22 December 2008. He was also president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the vice-president of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR), two positions he assumed in 2004.
The Romanian Democratic Convention was an electoral alliance of several democratic, anti-Communist, anti-totalitarian, and centre-right political parties in Romania, active from 1991 until 2000. The most prominent leaders of the CDR throughout the 1990s were by far Corneliu Coposu, Ion Rațiu, and Ion Diaconescu, all three members of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚ-CD) - successor and political heir to the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), active in the Kingdom of Romania between 1926 and 1948).
The National Salvation Front is the name of the most important political organization formed during the anti-communist revolution in December 22, 1989, which became the governing body of Romania in the first weeks after the collapse of the totalitarian 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 Christian democratic and agrarian political party in Romania. It claims to be the rightful successor of the interwar National Peasants' Party, 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 between 1880 and 1918 one of Romania's two most important parties, the other one being the Liberal Party. The party was the party of government for a total of 14 years, more than a third of its existence.
Valeriu Stoica is a Romanian politician and academic. A professor of civil law at the University of Bucharest, he became a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL) in 1990, and was first vice-president of the party between 1997 and 2001 and then president for a brief period of time between 2001 and 2002.
Presidential elections were held in Romania in 2009. 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 win for Geoană in the runoff, the authorities declared Băsescu the narrow victor with 50.33% of the votes. To date, it is the closest election in Romanian history.
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.
Ramona Nicole Mănescu is a Romanian politician and lawyer. From 24 July 2019 to 4 November 2019, she served as minister of Foreign Affairs in the Romanian Government. She was a Member of the European Parliament serving 2007 to 2013 and 2014 to 2019 from the National Liberal Party, active within the European People's Party. As part of this group she is a member of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, vice-chair in the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries and a substitute member in the Committee on transport and tourism and in Delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula.
Legislative elections were held in Romania on 9 December 2012. The Social Liberal Union (USL) of Prime Minister Victor Ponta won an absolute majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Despite the severe weather in parts of the country, the turnout was at 42%, slightly higher than the last legislative elections held in 2008 which saw a turnout of 39%.
The Conservative-Democratic Party was a political party in Romania. Over the years, it had the following names: the Democratic Party, the Nationalist Conservative Party, or the Unionist Conservative Party.
The Save Romania Union is a liberal and progressive political party in Romania, currently the third largest party both in the Parliament and locally at nationwide level. The party was founded following the success of the Save Bucharest Union (USB) party in the 2016 local elections. After being officially registered as a political party in 2016, it united with the local USB and Union for Codlea parties, thus gaining most of its initial membership base from the two latter parties.