Social Democratic Party (Romania)

Social Democratic Party Partidul Social Democrat
Abbreviation	PSD
President	Liviu Dragnea[1]
Secretary-General	Marian Neacșu
Executive President	Niculae Bădălău
Honorary President	Ion Iliescu
Leader in the Senate	Mihai Fifor
Leader in the Chamber of Deputies	Eugen Nicolicea
Leader in the European Parliament	Viorica Dăncilă
Founded	17 January 1990 (PSDR) 6 February 1990 (FSN) 1992 (FDSN) 1993 (PDSR) 16 June 2001 (as PSD)
Merger of	PDSR PSDR
Preceded by	PDSR
Headquarters	Șos. Kiseleff nr. 10 Bucharest
Youth wing	TSD
Women's wing	OFSD
Membership (2014)	509,000[2]
Ideology	Social democracy[3] Left-wing nationalism
Political position	Centre-left
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
International affiliation	Progressive Alliance Socialist International
European Parliament group	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
Colors	Red
Chamber of Deputies	154 / 329 [4]
Senate	67 / 136 [5]
European Parliament	14 / 32
Mayors	1,708 / 3,186 [6]
County Councilors	638 / 1,434 [6]
Local Council Councilors	16,969 / 40,067 [6]
Website
psd.ro
Politics of Romania Political parties Elections

The Social Democratic Party (Romanian: Partidul Social Democrat, PSD) is the major social-democratic^[3][7] 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.

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 Naționale, 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 Naționale, 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 Democrației 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 incumbent 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.^[8]

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.^[9][10] The USL was disbanded on 25 February 2014 with exit of the National Liberal Party which immediately entered opposition.^[11]

Structure

Leadership of FSN, FDSN, PDSR and PSD

Presidents:

• Ion Iliescu 1990; (FSN)
• Petre Roman 1990–1992; (FSN)
• Oliviu Gherman 1992–1996; (FDSN/PDSR)
• Ion Iliescu 1997–2000; (PDSR)
• Adrian Năstase 2000–2005 (acting to 2001); (PDSR/PSD)
• Mircea Geoană 2005–2010; (PSD)
• Victor Ponta 2010–2015; (PSD)
• Rovana Plumb 2015 (acting); (PSD)
• Liviu Dragnea 2015–present; (PSD)

Executive presidents

• Adrian Năstase 1993–1997
• Octav Cozmâncă 2003–2005
• Adrian Năstase 2005–2006
• Dan Mircea Popescu 2005–2006, when the office was dissolved (nominated Ad interim after the resignation of Adrian Năstase from the office)
• Liviu Dragnea 2013–2015
• Valeriu Zgonea 2015–2016
• Niculae Bădălău 2016–present

• 
  Ion Iliescu
• 
  Adrian Năstase
• 
  Mircea Geoană
• 
  Victor Ponta
• 
  Liviu Dragnea

Notable members

Current members

• Ecaterina Andronescu, Minister of Education
• Titus Corlățean, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Justice
• Liviu Dragnea, Secretary General of PSD, Deputy Prime Minister of Romania
• Viorel Hrebenciuc
• Ion Iliescu, President of Romania, Honorary President of PSD
• George Maior, Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service
• Adrian Năstase, Prime Minister of Romania, Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Robert Negoiță, Mayor of the 3rd Sector of Bucharest
• Rovana Plumb, MEP, Minister of Environment, Minister of Labour
• Victor Ponta, Prime Minister of Romania
• Ilie Sârbu, President of the Senate
• Dan Șova, Minister of Transport
• Sorin Grindeanu, Prime Minister of Romania
• Mihai Tudose, Prime Minister of Romania

Former members

• Mircea Geoană, President of the Senate, Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Sorin Oprescu, Mayor of Bucharest
• Marian Vanghelie, Mayor of the 5th Sector of Bucharest
• Radu Mazăre, Mayor of Constanța
• Sergiu Nicolaescu, director, screenwriter, actor

Electoral performance

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.^[12]

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.^[13]

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.^[14]

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.^[15] PSD Senator Dan Șova, 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."^[16] 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.^[17] Following public outcry, Șova 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.^[18]

See also

• Politics of Romania

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Social Democratic Party (Romania).

• Official website
• Transcripts of PSD meetings
• "Geoană admitted PSD stenograms were genuine", in Ziua

Coordinates: 44°27′40.46″N 26°4′52.85″E / 44.4612389°N 26.0813472°E / 44.4612389; 26.0813472