People's Movement Party


The People's Movement Party is an extra-parliamentary national-conservative and social conservative political party in Romania.

History

The PMP was created as a political foundation in March 2013 by supporters of then incumbent state president Traian Băsescu, following his break with the leadership of the Democratic Liberal Party around former Senate president Vasile Blaga. It was transformed into a political party in July 2013 and re-launched on 29 January 2014.
The PMP identified itself as Christian democratic and liberal in 2013. The new party's chairman after June 2014 was former minister of regional development and tourism and Băsescu's confidante Elena Udrea. Other notable members include former culture minister Theodor Paleologu, former foreign minister Teodor Baconschi, former minister of education Daniel Funeriu, or member of European Parliament Cristian Preda, Băsescu's daughter and MEP Elena Băsescu. and former Foreign Minister and head of the presidential administration Cristian Diaconescu.
In the 2014 European election, the party won 6.2% of the votes and two of Romania's 32 seats. Its members of the European Parliament Siegfried Mureșan and Cristian Preda joined the European People's Party Group, although Preda has since been expelled from the party. On 12 September 2014, the PMP was admitted as a full member to the European People's Party.
For the November 2014 presidential election, the PMP nominated Elena Udrea. She was also endorsed by the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party. With 5.2% of the popular vote, she was placed fourth and did not qualify for the second round. The party asked its voters to endorse Klaus Iohannis of the National Liberal Party in the runoff election.
On 12 July 2016, Traian Băsescu announced that the National Union for the Progress of Romania would merge with PMP on 20 July 2016. Subsequently, the union between the two parties failed and PMP lost several representatives both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies.
In the 2020 legislative election, due to poor presence at the polling stations caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the party failed to earn 5% of the public vote and thereby failed to enter parliament. The episode was controversial to say the least as the party was very close to the threshold and had zero votes in several polling stations in which they had party representatives whose votes were nowhere to be found. As a result, the party contested the results and demanded recounting the votes in as many as 1,090 polling stations. Nonetheless, this demand was ultimately refused by the Central Electoral Bureau. This failure led the party president, Eugen Tomac, to resign from the party's leadership.
After a party congress held on 7 March 2021, Cristian Diaconescu was elected the new president and designated the party's candidate for the forthcoming 2024 Romanian presidential election. On 19 February 2022, Eugen Tomac returned to the presidency of the party.
On 14 December 2023, Save Romania Union, Force of the Right and the People's Movement Party officially announced the creation of a right-leaning electoral alliance to contest in the 2024 elections. On 18 December, the alliance was formally named as United Right Alliance. In the 2024 European Parliament election, the party's MEP Eugen Tomac was re-elected and subsequently joined Renew Europe group together with USR MEPs.

Ideology

When it was founded January 2014, the party identified itself as conservative and economic liberal.
However, in the later years, the party became more traditionalist. Nowadays, it opposes the immigration of foreigners into EU, Marxism, socialism, globalisation, and same-sex marriage. It has been described as right-wing populist and a supporter of Romanian–Moldovan unionism, and is positioned from centre-right to right-wing.

Leadership

NºName
Born - Died		PortraitTerm startTerm endDuration
—Eugen Tomac

23 June 20138 June 2014
1Elena Udrea
8 June 201430 January 2015
—Eugen Tomac

30 January 20158 February 2015
2Eugen Tomac
8 February 201527 March 2016
3Traian Băsescu
27 March 201616 June 2018
Eugen Tomac
16 June 20189 December 2020
—

9 December 20207 March 2021
4Cristian Diaconescu
7 March 202119 February 2022
Eugen Tomac
19 February 2022Incumbent

Notable members

Current notable members

  • Traian Băsescu
  • Eugen Tomac
  • Elena Băsescu
  • Robert Turcescu

    Former notable members

  • Theodor Paleologu
  • Elena Udrea
  • Cristian Preda
  • Adrian Papahagi
  • Cristian Diaconescu
  • Daniel Funeriu
  • Mihail Neamțu
  • Siegfried Mureșan

    Electoral history

Legislative elections

Notes:
1 These MPs were previously elected on the PDL list of the larger ARD electoral alliance at the 2012 legislative election.

Local elections

National results

Mayor of Bucharest

Presidential elections

Notes:
1 Elena Udrea's candidacy to presidency in 2014 was also endorsed by the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party.
2 FD's candidate for presidency in 2024 was also endorsed by PMP.
3

European elections

ElectionVotesPercentageMEPsPositionEU PartyEP Group
2014345,9736.2% —EPP Group
2019522,1045.7% EPPEPP Group
2024778,9018.71%
1		EPPEPP Group

Note:
1ADU members: USR, PMP and FD.