Politics of Romania


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 as its only legal party.
Romania's 1991 constitution proclaims it a democratic and social republic, deriving its sovereignty from the people. According to the constitution, "Human dignity, civic rights and freedoms, the unhindered development of human personality, justice, and political pluralism are supreme and guaranteed values."
The constitution provides for a President, a Parliament, a Constitutional Court and a separate court system which includes the High Court of Cassation and Justice. The right to vote is granted to all citizens over 18 years of age.
The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Romania as a "flawed democracy" in 2016.

Executive branch

Legislative branch

Classification of political parties

Romania has a multiparty system, which makes a majority government virtually impossible; small parliamentary parties have merged with larger ones. Currently, there are six main parliamentary parties :
The main non-parliamentary parties with local representatives are:
Unlike other former Soviet-bloc countries, no party claiming to be the successor of the Communist Party of Romania is a significant player on the political scene.

Latest elections

Presidential election

The last presidential election was held on 10 and 24 November, 2019.

European Parliament election

The last European Parliamentary election was held on 26 May, 2019.
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" colspan="4" | Party
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan="2" | No. of
Candidates
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan="2" | Votes
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan="2" | Elected
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan="2" | Change
in seats
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan="2" | % of seats
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan="2" | % of votes
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" colspan="2" | National Party
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" | EU Party
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" | EP Group


ECR
! style="text-align:right;" | 483
! style="text-align:right;" | 9,352,472
! style="text-align:right;" | 33
! style="text-align:right;" | 1
! style="text-align:right;" | 100%
! style="text-align:right;" | 100%

Legislative election

The latest legislative election was held on 11 December 2016. In the two tables below are represented the results for both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies:

Chamber of Deputies

Senate

Local election

The latest general local election was held on 5 June, 2016.

Judicial branch

Constitutional issues

Regional institutions

For territorial and administrative purposes, Romania is divided into 41 counties and the city of Bucharest. Each county is governed by an elected council. Local councils and elected mayors are the public authorities in villages and towns. The county council coordinates the activities of village and town councils.
The central government appoints a prefect for each county and Bucharest, who represents the government at the local level and directs the ministries and other central agencies at the county level. A prefect may block the action of a local authority if he deems it unlawful or unconstitutional, with the matter then adjudicated by an administrative court.
Under legislation enacted in January 1999, local councils control the spending of their allocations from the central government budget and have the authority to raise additional revenue locally. Although centrally-appointed prefects formerly had significant authority over the budget, this is now limited to a review of expenditures to determine their constitutionality.

Since 1989

Romania has made progress in institutionalizing democratic principles, civil liberties, and respect for human rights since the Romanian Revolution in December 1989. Some present-day Romanian politicians are former members of the Romanian Communist Party. Since membership in the party was a requirement for advancement before 1989, many people joined to get ahead rather than because of ideological conviction; however, the Communist past of some Romanian politicians remains controversial.

1990–1992

Over 200 new political parties sprang up after 1989, most gravitating to leaders rather than programs. All major parties espoused democracy and market reforms in varying degrees. The largest party by far, the governing National Salvation Front, proposed slow, cautious economic reforms and a social safety net. The main opposition parties, the National Liberal Party and the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party, favored rapid, sweeping reform, immediate privatization, and a reduction in the role of former Communist Party members. The Communist Party ceased to exist.
In the 1990 presidential and legislative elections, the FSN and its presidential candidate, Ion Iliescu, won with a large majority of the votes. The strongest opposition parties in the Senate were the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, with 7.20 percent, and the National Liberal Party with 7.06 percent.
After FSN Prime Minister Petre Roman's dismissal a few months before the 1992 general elections, the FSN split in two. President Iliescu's supporters formed a new party, the Democratic National Salvation Front, and Roman's supporters retained the FSN name.

1992–1996

The 1992 local, legislative, and presidential elections indicated a political rift between the urban centres and the countryside. Rural voters, grateful for the restoration of most agricultural land to farmers but fearful of change, strongly favored President Iliescu and the FDSN; the urban electorate favored the CDR and quicker reform. Iliescu easily won re-election from a field of five other candidates, and the FDSN won a plurality in both chambers of parliament.
With the CDR, the second-largest parliamentary group, reluctant to participate in a national-unity coalition, the FDSN formed a government under Prime Minister and economist Nicolae Văcăroiu with parliamentary support from the nationalist Romanian National Unity Party and Greater Romania Party, and the Socialist Workers' Party. In January 1994, the governing coalition's stability became problematic when the PUNR threatened to withdraw its support unless it received cabinet portfolios. After intense negotiations, two PUNR members received cabinet portfolios in the Văcăroiu government in August. The following month, the incumbent justice minister also joined the PUNR. The PRM and the PSM left the coalition in October and December 1995, respectively.

1996–2000

The 1996 local elections indicated a major shift in the political orientation of the Romanian electorate, with opposition parties sweeping Bucharest and most of the larger cities in Transylvania, Banat, Bukovina, and Dobruja. The trend continued in that year's legislative and presidential elections, when the opposition dominated the cities and made strong inroads into rural areas previously dominated by President Iliescu and the PDSR.
The opposition campaign emphasized the need to squelch corruption and introduce economic reform. This message resonated with voters, resulting in a historic victory for the CDR coalition and the election of Emil Constantinescu as president. To secure its electoral majority, the CDR invited Petre Roman's Democratic Party and the UDMR to join the government. Although over the next four years Romania had three prime ministers, the governing parties preserved their coalition and initiated a series of needed reforms.

2000–2004

The coalition lost the first round of presidential elections in November 2000 as a result of popular dissatisfaction with infighting among the parties during the preceding four years and the economic hardship brought about by structural reforms. In the second round Iliescu, running again as the Social Democratic Party candidate, won by a wide margin over extreme nationalist Greater Romania Party candidate Corneliu Vadim Tudor. Iliescu appointed Adrian Năstase prime minister. In Parliament the PSD government relied on the support of the UDMR, which did not join the Cabinet but negotiated annual packages of legislation and other measures favoring Romania's ethnic Hungarians.
Năstase, in his four years as prime minister, continued the previous government's pro-Western foreign policy. The period was characterized by a political stability unprecedented in post-communist Romania and consistent economic growth. Romania joined NATO in spring 2004 and signed an accession treaty to join the EU. However, the PSD government was plagued by allegations of corruption which would be significant factors in its defeat in local and national elections in 2004.
In September, 2003 the Democratic Party and National Liberal Party formed an electoral alliance, the Justice and Truth Alliance, as a mainstream opposition bloc to the ruling PSD. The DA Alliance agreed, among other measures, to vote as a bloc in parliament and local councils and run common candidates in national and local elections. In October 2003, the country held a referendum on several constitutional amendments deemed necessary for EU accession. The amendments included provisions to allow foreigners to own land in Romania and to change the president's term from four to five years.

2004–2008

In 2004 Traian Băsescu, the then leader of the Democratic Party, won the presidential election by a narrow margin. Băsescu subsequently appointed former liberal leader Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu as Prime Minister. Popescu-Tăriceanu headed a government composed of the PNL, PD, UDMR, and PC. In order to secure a parliamentary majority, the coalition government relied on the support of 18 parliamentary seats reserved for ethnic-minority representatives.
The government's narrow majority in Parliament led to calls for early elections. In July 2005, Prime Minister Popescu-Tăriceanu voiced plans to resign, prompting new elections; he then backtracked, noting his and the cabinet's need to focus on relief efforts for summer floods. During its first year the government was also tested by a successfully-resolved hostage crisis involving three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Iraq and avian influenza in several parts of the country, transmitted by wild birds migrating from Asia.
The government's overriding objective was the accession of Romania to the European Union, and on 1 January 2007 Romania became the 26th member of the EU. The government also maintained good relations with the United States, signing an agreement in December 2005 which would allow American troops to train and serve at several Romanian military facilities. Băsescu and Popescu-Tăriceanu pledged to combat high-level corruption and implement broader reform to modernize sectors such as the judicial system and health care.
On 19 April 2007, Parliament suspended President Băsescu on charges of unconstitutional conduct. The suspension, passed by a 322–108 vote, opened the way for a national referendum on impeachment which failed.

2008–2012

The November 2008 parliamentary elections were close, with the Social Democrats winning 33.9 percent of the vote, President Traian Băsescu's centre-right Liberal Democrats taking 32.34 percent, and the ruling National Liberals receiving 18.6 percent. The Liberal Democrats and Social Democrats formed a coalition after the election. Former prime minister Theodor Stolojan withdrew his candidacy for the premiership and President Băsescu nominated Emil Boc, president of the Liberal Democrats, as prime minister.
With the onset of the Great Recession, the Romanian political scene saw tensions between the president and prime minister and between the general population and both. Tensions escalated with a 2012 political crisis and another attempt to impeach President Băsescu. In the referendum, more than 7.4 million people supported Băsescu's removal from office. However, the Constitutional Court invalidated the referendum because the majority of the population did not vote ; Băsescu had called the referendum a coup d'état, and asked the public to boycott it. All these events have been heavily criticized by international political figures, most notably by German chancellor Angela Merkel.

2012–2016

The legislative elections of 9 December 2012 were seen by the public as an opportunity for change and to oust Băsescu. The Social Liberal Union received a large majority in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and a record 395 seats. The new prime minister, Victor Ponta, quickly formed a government but the failure to adopt reforms quickly triggered a wave of protests against a government seen as not fulfilling the promises of the 2012 electoral campaign. Two other projects of national interest unleashed more protests. The demonstrations, initially ecological in focus, became anti-government protests.
In early 2014, the PNL broke away from the USL and entered opposition. Along with the PDL, the PNL formed the Christian Liberal Alliance in order to support the candidature of Klaus Johannis as president of Romania and later agreed on a future merger that would retain the name of the National Liberal Party. Johannis won a surprise victory in front of then incumbent PM Victor Ponta in the second round of the 2014 presidential elections, by a margin of 54.43%. Voters abroad were very angry because of the fact that they were not all given the right to cast their ballots, which represented one of the key reasons for Ponta's defeat. In late 2015, another series of nationwide protests ultimately prompted Prime Minister Victor Ponta's resignation. Shortly afterwards, President Johannis appointed then independent politician Dacian Cioloș as Prime Minister, who was briefly in charge of a technocratic government between late 2015 and early 2017.

2016–2020

The legislative elections of 11 December 2016 saw a predictable comeback of the PSD as the major party in the Romanian Parliament, as most opinion polls gave them an electoral score of at least 40%. Alongside ALDE, the PSD initially formed a governing coalition under Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu.
In early 2017, a series of massive nationwide protests requested Grindeanu's resignation and early elections because of the government's secret procedure of giving an ordinance modifying the Penal Code and Penal Procedure Code on the night of 31 January. The PM along with the entire government refused to step down but, nonetheless, decided to withdraw the decrees that started the protests on 5 February at the protests' peak.
Approximately four months later, tensions arose between PM Sorin Grindeanu and PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, which ultimately resulted in the loss of political support for the government on behalf of the PSD-ALDE coalition. The PM refused to resign but was eventually dismissed by a motion of no confidence passed by the Parliament with 241 votes.
Quickly afterwards, Mihai Tudose was proposed by the socialists for the position of Prime Minister and was subsequently accepted by president Johannis. However, just after 6 months of governance, he resigned from this dignity. Consequently, the ruling coalition nominated a new Prime Minister candidate in the person of Viorica Dăncilă, a former socialist MEP in the 2014–19 who was also accepted by the state president. Subsequently, on 4 November 2019, after a motion of no confidence, the PSD minority government was replaced by a minority cabinet led by the National Liberal Party under Ludovic Orban.
All throughout this period of time which was marked by governmental mayhem produced by the PSD-ALDE ruling coalition regarding their change of PMs as well as their intentions of changing both the Penal Code and the Penal Procedure Code, the Romanian society took to the streets of Bucharest and many other major cities of the country in huge numbers for more than 500 consecutive days in order to oppose the modification of these law packages, prompt early elections, as well as a referendum on the topic of justice.

Participation in international organizations

Romania participates in the following international organisations:
ACCT, BIS, BSEC, CE, CEI, CPLP, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, EEA, EU, FAO, Francophonie. G-9, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, LAIA, Latin Union, MONUC, NAM, NATO, NSG, OAS, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, SEECP, SPSEE, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, Zangger Committee