Abbreviation PSD Secretary-General Marian Neacșu (ro) Honorary President Ion Iliescu | President Liviu Dragnea Executive President Niculae Bădălău (ro) Leader in the Senate Şerban Nicolae (ro) | |
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The Social Democratic Party (Romanian: Partidul Social Democrat, PSD) is the major social-democratic political party in Romania. The largest party in Parliament with initially 63 seats in the Senate and 158 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, it also has the largest number of mayors, local and county councilors and county presidents thus being the biggest and most influential political force in the country. PSD traces its origins to the Democratic National Salvation Front, a breakaway group established in 1992 from the post-communist National Salvation Front. In 1993 this merged with three other parties to become the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR). The present name was adopted after a merger with the smaller Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR) in 2001. Since its formation, it has always been one of the two dominant parties of the country. The PDSR governed Romania from 1992 to 1996, while the PSDR was a junior coalition partner between 1996 and 2000. The merged PSD was the senior party in the coalitions governing from 2000 to 2004, and from March 2014 to November 2015, as well as one of the main coalition partners between December 2008 and October 2009 (with the Democratic Liberal Party) and again between May 2012 and March 2014 (as part of the Social Liberal Union). The party left government after Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned in November 2015. The founder of the party, Ion Iliescu, became President of the Republic, in office from the end of Communism in 1989 to 1996, and again from 2000 to 2004.
Contents
- History
- Leadership of FSN FDSN PDSR and PSD
- Current members
- Former members
- Electoral performance
- Controversies
- References
The current president of the PSD is Liviu Dragnea, elected as leader after the former Prime Minister of Romania Victor Ponta stepped down on 12 July 2015, following unresolved charges of corruption but mainly because some pending health problems. On 22 April 2016, Liviu Dragnea was found guilty for vote rigging in the 2012 referendum and received a two-year suspended sentence. Dragnea's electoral rights and party membership were not suspended, thus he refused to step down as President of the PSD, having the support of almost the entire party.
History
On 7 April 1992, the struggle for power inside the National Salvation Front (Romanian: Frontul Salvării Naţionale, FSN) between the more hard-line group led by Ion Iliescu and the more reformist group led by Petre Roman resulted in the Iliescu group withdrawing from FSN and the founding of the Democratic National Salvation Front (Romanian: Frontul Democrat al Salvării Naţionale, FDSN), which would later become the present-day PSD.
FDSN won the 1992 elections and went on to govern Romania until 1996. On 10 July 1993 it took the name of Party of Social Democracy in Romania (Romanian: Partidul Democraţiei Sociale in România, PDSR) upon merger with the Socialist Democratic Party of Romania, the Republican Party and the Cooperative Party.
From 1994 to 1996 the PDSR ruled in coalition with the right-wing Romanian National Unity Party (PUNR) and Greater Romania Party (PRM), and the left-wing Socialist Party of Labour. PUNR had ministers in the cabinet chaired by Nicolae Văcăroiu from March 1994 to September 1996. PRM was not present at the Cabinet, but was given some posts in the State administration. The PDSR went into opposition after the 1996 election, which was won by the right-wing coalition Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR).
After 4 years of governmental turmoil and economic downfall, poorly managed by the crumbling CDR, saw PDSR making a fulminant comeback, winning the November 2000 elections, this time in a coalition named the Social Democratic Pole of Romania along with the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR) and the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR). PSDR merged with PDSR on 16 June 2001, and the resulting party took its present name, PSD.
In November 2004, Adrian Năstase, the PSD candidate and incumbet Prime Minister, won the first round of the presidential elections but did not have a majority and had to go to a second round of voting, which he narrowly lost to Traian Băsescu of the opposition Justice and Truth alliance, who became Romania's 4th president. In the legislative elections of 2004, the PSD gained the largest share of the vote but because it did not have a majority, the other parties that managed to enter parliament, UDMR and PUR, abandoned their respective pre-electoral agreements with PSD and joined the Justice and Truth Alliance, mainly at the pressure of the recently elected president.
Mircea Geoană was elected president of the party in April 2005 by delegates at a PSD Party Congress held in Bucharest. His victory represented a surprise defeat for former President Ion Iliescu, who was expected to defeat Geoană handily.
On 17 April 2008, the Social Democratic Party and the Conservative Party announced they would form a political alliance for the 2008 local elections.
In February 2010, the Congress elected Victor Ponta as president, after Mircea Geoana lost the presidential elections in December 2009.
On 5 February 2011, the PSD formed a political alliance known as the Social Liberal Union (USL) with the Conservative Party and National Liberal Party. The USL was disbanded on 25 February 2014 with exit of the National Liberal Party which immediately entered opposition.
Leadership of FSN, FDSN, PDSR and PSD
Presidents:
Executive presidents
Current members
Former members
Electoral performance
1 in opposition between 2009 and 2012
2 in opposition between 2015 and 2016
Controversies
Political opponents have criticised PSD for harbouring former Romanian Communist Party officials, and for allegedly attempting to control the Romanian mass media. A number of its current or former senior members have also been accused of corruption, interfering in the judiciary and using their political positions for personal enrichment.
Alleged text transcripts of PSD meetings surfaced on an anonymous Web site just before the 2004 Romanian presidential election. Năstase and his ministers are shown talking about political involvement in corruption trials of the government's members, or involvement in suppressing "disobedient" media. Năstase stated that the transcripts were fake, but several party members, including former PSD president and former Foreign Minister Mircea Geoană, have said they are indeed genuine. Geoană later retracted his statement.
Adrian Năstase temporarily "self-suspended" himself from the position on 16 January 2006 pending investigation of a scandal provoked by his wealth declaration, where he was accused of corruption.
Politicians of the party have occasionally employed "utilitarian anti-Semitism". This means that politicians who may usually not be anti-Semites played off certain anti-Semitic prejudices, in order to serve their political necessities. PSD Senator Dan Şova, at the time party spokesman, claimed, on 5 March 2012, on the Money Channel that "no Jew suffered on Romanian territory, thanks to marshal Antonescu." Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania expressed its deep disagreement and indignation over the statements of the spokesman of the party. Following public outcry, Şova retracted his statement and issued a public apology. Nevertheless, the chairman of the party, Victor Ponta, announced his removal from the office of party spokesman.