Valer Dorneanu (born 21 November 1944) is a Romanian politician and jurist. A prominent member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Dorneanu was the president of the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Romanian Parliament) between December 2000 and November 2004. He spent four additional years in the Chamber, departing at the 2008 election. [1] From 18 October 2010 to 28 March 2013, he was adjoint to the Romanian Ombudsman office, in the military, juridical, police, and penitentiary areas. From 3 July 2012 to 23 January 2013, he functioned interimistically as the Ombudsman (Avocatului Poporului). [2] From 2013 to 2022 he was a judge in Romania's Constitutional Court, for a mandate of 9 years, and the president of this institution from 2016 until the end of his mandate. [3]
In 1967, Dorneanu graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Bucharest. He has since become a Professor in the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Bucharest. [1] From 1967 to 1974 he was a prosecutor at the courts of Sector 5 and Sector 6 in Bucharest. [4] During the Communist era, he was one of the ideologues of former President and dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. [5]
In 2002, Dorneanu was awarded the Order of the Star of Romania, Knight rank. [4]
Ion Iliescu is a Romanian politician and engineer who served as the second and fourth president of Romania from 1989 until 1996 and from 2000 until 2004. Between 1996 and 2000 and also from 2004 to 2008, the year in which he retired, Iliescu was a senator for the Social Democratic Party (PSD), of which he is the founder and honorary president to this day.
The Palace of the Parliament, also known as the House of the Republic or People's House/People's Palace, is the seat of the Parliament of Romania, located atop Dealul Spirii in Bucharest, the national capital. The Palace reaches a height of 84 m (276 ft), has a floor area of 365,000 m2 (3,930,000 sq ft) and a volume of 2,550,000 m3 (90,000,000 cu ft). The Palace of the Parliament is one of the heaviest buildings in the world, weighing about 4,098,500 tonnes, and is the third largest administrative building in the world.
Corina Crețu is a Romanian politician and a former European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms. Crețu is a member of the Romanian PRO Romania and Member of the European Parliament. Between June 2014 and October 2014, she served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament.
Ludovic Orban is a Romanian engineer and politician who was the prime minister of Romania from November 2019 to December 2020. He was president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) between 2017 and 2021, which expelled him shortly after he lost a bid for another term as its leader. He was also minister of transport from April 2007 to December 2008 in the second Tăriceanu cabinet.
Raluca Turcan is a Romanian politician. A member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), she has been a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Sibiu County since 2004.
Alina-Ștefania Gorghiu is a Romanian lawyer and politician who served as president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) from December 2014 until December 2016. She was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Bucharest from December 2008 to December 2016. Since the latter date, she has represented Timiș County in the Romanian Senate.
Sorin Mihai Cîmpeanu is a Romanian politician who served as Minister of Education in Ciucă Cabinet. He had previously held the same position in Ponta IV and Cîțu cabinets, and, between 5 and 17 November 2015, acted as Prime Minister of Romania, after President Klaus Iohannis accepted Prime Minister Ponta's resignation. Klaus Iohannis's appointment of Sorin Cîmpeanu was just a stopgap measure until a new candidate for the post was selected.
The Save Romania Union is a liberal political party in Romania that sits on the centre-right of the political spectrum. It is 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% of the vote – the second-highest vote share on record in this type of elections after Ion Iliescu.
Ion-Marcel Ciolacu is a Romanian politician who currently serves as the Prime Minister of Romania. He is also the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). As a previously little-known politician outside of Buzău County, where he owns a pastry shop and a consulting firm, Ciolacu came into national prominence when he became the deputy prime minister in 2018 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Mihai Tudose. Allegedly, he was given this office in order to report Tudose's activities to Liviu Dragnea, who had been unable to become prime minister himself and was wary of Tudose becoming a power player in the party. Ciolacu soon broke with Dragnea and became an ally of Tudose against Dragnea's leadership. After Tudose's resignation, Ciolacu was marginalized within PSD but still retained the leadership of PSD Buzău. Ciolacu once again returned to prominence in 2019 after Liviu Dragnea had been convicted on abuse of office and incitement to intellectual forgery charges, having to serve a 3 years, 6 months sentence. With the Social Democrats still controlling a majority both in the Chamber and in the Senate, Ciolacu won the position of President of the Chamber of Deputies, with 172 votes for and 120 against, previously held by Dragnea himself.
Florin Vasile Cîțu is a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between December 2020 and November 2021. Sometimes labeled as Romania's first libertarian Prime Minister, he was also the leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL) between September 2021 and April 2022.
Nicolae Ionel Ciucă is a Romanian politician and retired general of the Romanian Land Forces who is serving as the president of the Senate of Romania. Ideologically a conservative, he served as Prime Minister of Romania between 25 November 2021 and 12 June 2023 after receiving widespread parliamentary support on behalf of his own party, the National Liberal Party (PNL) along with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ). Since 10 April 2022, he has also been serving as the president of the National Liberal Party (PNL). On 12 June 2023, he resigned as prime minister, being temporarily replaced by Cătălin Predoiu.
Anca Dana Paliu Dragu is a Romanian economist and politician. She was Minister of Public Finance of Romania, as well as President of the Senate of Romania from 21 December 2020 to 23 November 2021. Dragu was the first woman in the history of the Senate to hold this position. In December 2023, she obtained Moldovan citizenship and was appointed Governor of the National Bank of Moldova.
Events from the year 2021 in Romania.
Presidential elections will be held in Romania on 24 November 2024. A second round will be held on 8 December 2024 if no candidate receives an absolute majority of the vote. They will be the ninth presidential elections held in post-1989 Romania. As the Romanian Constitution allows a president to be re-elected only once, the incumbent, Klaus Iohannis, first elected in 2014 and then re-elected in 2019, is not eligible for re-election. His second term will formally 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).
The National Coalition for Romania, initially referred to as the Coalition for Resilience, Development and Prosperity, is a big tent grand coalition in Romania, which includes the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL). In addition, this grand coalition supports the presidency of Klaus Iohannis. The CNR also included the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) until its withdrawal from the coalition in June 2023.
Renewing Romania's European Project is a 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.
Alfred-Robert Simonis is a Romanian politician, born in Timiș County, member of the Social Democratic Party since 2001 and a member of Chamber of Deputies since 2016.
George-Cristian Tuță is a Romanian politician of the National Liberal Party. Since 2020, he has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies. In the 2024 local elections, he was elected mayor of Sector 1 of Bucharest. From 2011 to 2014, he served as deputy secretary general of the National Liberal Party. In 2023, he was elected interim leader of the party in Sector 1.