Politics of Romania
Romania's political framework is a semi-presidential representative republic where the Prime Minister is the head of government while the President, according to the Constitution, has at least in theory 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 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 in theory. 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 2023. As of 2025, it could be classified as a hybrid regime behind a constitutional facade. Romania was fully admitted to the Schengen area on 1 January 2025.
Classification of political parties
Romania has a multiparty political system, which makes a majority government virtually impossible. Smaller parliamentary parties have sometimes merged with larger ones during previous legislatures before 2020. Currently, there are five main parliamentary parties as follows:The main four non-parliamentary parties with local representatives are as follows:
Unlike other former Soviet-bloc countries, no political party claiming to be the successor of the Romanian Communist Party has been or is currently a significant player on the political scene, although the main continuator of FSN, more specifically PSD, has many times raised suspicions and accusations from electoral contenders regarding the past political careers of many of its current and former members who were first tier, high-ranking members of the PCR before the 1989 Romanian Revolution. The PNL also has many former Securitate members, former PCR members, or their relatives, in part through the merger with the PDL in 2014 but not only.
Latest elections
Presidential election
The last presidential election|presidential election] took place on May 4 and May 18, 2025, respectively. Following the events that occurred during the first round of voting and the finding of foreign interference in the November 2024 presidential elections, the Constitutional Court annulled the elections, so they were repeated in May 2025.Legislative election
The latest legislative election was held on 1 December 2024. The two tables below are represented the results for both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies:Local election
The latest general local election was held on 27 September 2020.! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Party
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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 considerable progress in institutionalizing democratic principles, civil liberties, and respect for human rights since the Romanian Revolution in December 1989. Nevertheless, many present-day Romanian politicians are former members of the Romanian Communist Party and have also had ties with the Romanian secret police. 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 highly controversial to the current day.1990–1992
The Romanian Communist Party officially ceased to exist after the December 1989 Romanian Revolution. An ad interim/acting government swiftly took office starting in late December 1989 which consisted of National Salvation Front members and would eventually govern Romania well up until 1992. The FSN had initially not decided to run in the 1990 elections but subsequently retracted their initial position and opted to participate in the 1990 Romanian general election, having the full support of state-owned media and an overwhelming majority of the voters during the electoral campaign, thereby eventually securing a landslide win.Prior to the 1990 Romanian general election, over 200 new political parties sprang up just after 1989, most of them gravitating towards their leaders rather than revolving around political programs or full-fledged geopolitical agendas. Nevertheless, all major political parties espoused democracy and free market reforms to varying degrees or extents. The largest political party by far, the governing National Salvation Front, proposed slow, cautious economic reforms, and an artificial, weak social safety net.
In stark contrast, the main opposition parties, more specifically the National Liberal Party and the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party, favored rapid, sweeping economic reforms, immediate privatization as well as a drastic reduction and even total exclusion of former Communist Party members from public Romanian political life. Apart from PCR members, the early demands of the Romanian historical democratic parties were also the reduction of the undercover members of the former Securitate from all areas of public life.
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 Hungarian minority-oriented Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania and the National Liberal Party, followed by the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party with only 2.5% and the Romanian Ecologist Party as well other minor centre-right parties with less than one per cent.
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 political party, namely the Democratic National Salvation Front which will later turn into PDSR and then PSD, while Roman's supporters retained the FSN name.
1992–1996
The 1992 local, legislative, and presidential elections indicated a major 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 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/relative majority of seats in both chambers of the Romanian 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 on behalf of the nationalists Romanian National Unity Party and Greater Romania Party as well as the extreme left-wing Socialist Party of Labour led by former PCR Prime Minister Ilie Verdeț. The future coalition would be labeled by the press as the "Red Quadrilateral".
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 of the same year. The following month, the incumbent Justice Minister also joined the PUNR. Nevertheless, subsequently, 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 favoring liberalization and the free market. This message resonated with voters, resulting in a historical 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/RMDSZ 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 much-needed reforms.
2000–2004
Constantinescu stated in 2000 that he is no longer running for a second term, claiming that the system had defeated him. The CDR-led coalition with its new candidate Mugur Isărescu lost the first round of presidential elections held in November 2000 as a result of popular dissatisfaction with infighting among the constituent parties during the preceding four years and the economic hardship brought about by structural reforms. In the second round, Ion 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 subsequently appointed Adrian Năstase Prime Minister. In the Parliament, the PSD government relied on the support of the UDMR/RMDSZ, 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 political stability unprecedented in post-communist Romania and consistent economic growth. Romania joined NATO in the spring of 2004 and signed an accession treaty to join the EU in 2007. However, the PSD government was plagued by allegations of corruption which would be significant factors in its eventual defeat in local and national elections in 2004.
In September 2003, the Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party formed an electoral alliance, more specifically 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 the 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 national liberal leader Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu as prime minister. Popescu-Tăriceanu headed a government composed of the PNL, PD, UDMR/RMDSZ, 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 the 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 reforms to modernize sectors such as the judicial system and healthcare.
On 19 April 2007, the Romanian 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 by a large popular vote, and as such Băsescu was reinstated as President.
2008–2012
The November 2008 parliamentary elections were close, with the Social Democrats winning 33.9% of the vote, President Traian Băsescu's centre-right Liberal Democrats taking 32.3%, and the ruling National Liberals receiving 18.6%. 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 the prime minister on the one hand as well as between the general population on the other hand. 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 to support the candidature of Klaus Iohannis as President of Romania and later agreed on a future merger that would retain the name of the National Liberal Party. Iohannis won a surprise victory in front of the incumbent PM Victor Ponta in the second round of the 2014 presidential elections, by a margin of 54.43%. At that time, many voters abroad were rightfully angry because 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 afterward, President Iohannis appointed then independent-technocrat Dacian Cioloș as Prime Minister, who led a likewise independent-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 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 afterward, Mihai Tudose was proposed by the socialists for the position of prime minister and was subsequently accepted by president Iohannis. 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 List of members of the [European Parliament (2014–2019)|2014–19] who was also accepted by the state president. She was also the first female Prime Minister of Romania. 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. Furthermore, in November 2019, President Klaus Iohannis was re-elected by a landslide.
This period was marked by governmental mayhem produced by the previous 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.
2020–2024
The 2020 Romanian local elections which were held on 27 September were won by the PNL. Nonetheless, on 6 December, the PNL finished second in the 2020 Romanian legislative election. The election was won by the oppositional Social Democrats who came in first. Shortly after the official results came out, Orban resigned from his position as PM and was replaced by Nicolae Ciucă as acting/ad interim PM.In the meantime, the national liberals proceeded to negotiate the formation of a coalition government alongside USR PLUS and UDMR for a reportedly stable center-right governance for the next four years in Romania. The newly designated PM was therefore Florin Cîțu, a member of the National Liberal Party, who took office on 23 December 2020, after forming a three-party, center-right coalition consisting of the PNL, the USR PLUS, and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania.
Subsequently, in early September 2021, USR PLUS decided to exit the Cîțu Cabinet and so the three centre-right party alliance was officially disbanded, inadvertently leading to the major 2021 Romanian political crisis which lasted for nearly three months, until Nicolae Ciucă was invested PM along with the CNR cabinet in late November 2021. On 15 June 2023, Marcel Ciolacu was sworn in as the new Romanian Prime Minister. Rotating premiership had been long agreed as part of a deal by the ruling coalition. Since the investment of the CNR cabinet, Romania has been experiencing a clear shift towards authoritarianism, illiberalism and has the characteristics of a hybrid regime behind a constitutional facade.
2024–present
In 2024, all 4 types of elections took place in Romania, a first in the post-December history of the country. European Parliament election and the local election took place simultaneously on June 9, the European Parliament election being won by the PSD-PNL Alliance, and the local ones by the Social Democratic Party. The European Parliament and local elections also provided positive results for the nationalist parties such as the Alliance for the Union of Romanians which sent 5 MEPs to the European Parliament and the more radical formation S.O.S. Romania which sent 2 MEPs. Also, in these elections, AUR strengthened its position in the territory by winning important seats in the county and local councils. Also, the simultaneous organization of the 2 elections on the same day was also met with problems and reports related to electoral fraud, the biggest scandals that came to the surface after the election were in sector 1 and sector 2 of Bucharest.The first round of the 2024 presidential election was held on 24 November, with independent candidate Călin Georgescu winning the first round with 22.9% and USR candidate Elena Lasconi finishing second with 19.2%.
After accusations of Russian interference in the election, the CCR called on 28 November for a recount of all 1st round votes, after which it validated the results five days later. However, the CCR reversed its validation on 6 December following new CSAT documents declassified by Iohannis two days previously.
The 2024 parliamentary election took place on 1 December. They took place within a relatively tense context and polarization in society as a result of the events that followed the 1st round of the presidential elections on 24 November such as the anti-extremism demonstrations and the counter-demonstrations of Călin Georgescu's supporters. The parliamentary election were won by the ruling social-democrats, but with a lower score compared to the previous election in 2020. The official results indicated a hung parliament that requires the formation of a broad governing coalition for a stable majority. In the first days after the parliamentary election, there was discussion about the formation of a cordon sanitaire to isolate the so-called sovereignist block and the formation of a stable pro-European coalition formed by PSD, PNL, USR, UDMR and ethnic minority parties. As a result of the annulment of the first round of presidential election, REPER requested the Central Electoral Office to annul the parliamentary election emphasizing that the reasons that led to the decision of the CCR are also valid for the parliamentary election. Vlad Gheorghe, the leader of the party DREPT, also called for the annulment of the parliamentary elections citing : "Russian interference", "manipulation and disinformation of the population”.
Meanwhile, the negotiations between PSD, PNL, USR and UDMR have reached an impasse, USR making several requests to the potential coalition partners such as tax cuts, the resignation of the president Klaus Iohannis, the rapid adoption of the new budget, the start of the procedures for the initiation of the referendum "no convicted criminals from holding public office" and the resignation of the heads of the intelligence services. In the end, the USR stayed out of the negotiations on the future governing coalition thus the return of the old PSD-PNL-UDMR-minorities formula that was between 2021 and 2023 during the Ciucă Cabinet materialized. On 23 December 2024, the new government was invested with a fragile majority, Second Ciolacu cabinet. In January 2025, the 2025 presidential election was scheduled for May. In the runoff on 18 May, Nicușor Dan defeated George Simion, with his presidency beginning on 26 May 2025.
Foreign relations
On 1 January 2007, Romania became a member of the European Union in the fifth wave of EU enlargement. During the 2000s, Romania implemented a number of reforms to prepare for EU accession, including the consolidation of its democratic systems, the institution of the rule of law, the acknowledgement of respect for human rights, the commitment to personal freedom of expression, and the implementation of a functioning free-market economy.Romania joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on 29 March 2004, following the decision taken at the Prague Summit, in November 2002. Romania was a partner to the allied forces during the Gulf War, particularly during its service as president of the UN Security Council. Romania has been active in peacekeeping operations in UNAVEM in Angola, IFOR/SFOR in Bosnia, Albania, in Afghanistan and sent 860 troops to Iraq after the invasion led by the United States.
Romania has developed strong relations with Hungary, with the latter playing a key role in supporting Romania's bid to join the EU. Romania's ethnic Hungarian party also participated in all the government coalitions between 1996 and 2008 and from 2009. In 1996, Romania signed and ratified a basic bilateral treaty with Hungary that settled outstanding disagreements, laying the foundation for closer, more cooperative relations.
Bulgarian relations with Romania feature regular official visits by the two presidents. In the first half of the 20th century, Romania and Bulgaria had a serious conflict over the Dobruja region. This dispute, while now largely forgotten, escalated into all out war in 1913. The territorial dispute between the two countries ended with the Treaty of Craiova.