This article lists political parties in Romania. Romania has a democratic multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which a political party does not often have the chance of gaining parliamentary majority alone, and, thus, parties must work with each other to form coalition governments. The current system was established following the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and the adoption of a new constitution in 1991; prior to these events, Romania was a single-party state under the rulership of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR).
Since the early 1990s, Romanian politics saw a gradual decrease in the number of political parties entering the Parliament and a relative consolidation of existing ones along ideological lines. Major political parties can be roughly grouped into three main "families", more specifically liberal, social democratic, or conservative.[1] Extremist groups have a relatively low political profile in Romania, despite a surge in popularity of far-right and Eurosceptic political parties across many European Union (EU) countries during the 2010s.[2]
Party switching (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: traseism politic) remains a very concerning and significant issue, however, as does widespread corruption, leading to an overall low level of public trust in political parties. In December 2014 the level of trust stood at 12%.[3] To counter this perception, the two largest parties as of 2015 (namely the Social Democrats and the National Liberals) have allegedly initiated a series of internal reforms to strengthen their integrity criteria and impose disciplinary sanctions on party members investigated or convicted on corruption charges.[4] [5] [6]
Article 40 of the Constitution of Romania states that citizens can freely associate into political parties, with the exception of judges, military, and police personnel as well as other civil servants which are apolitical by law.[7] The same article bans political parties which campaign against political pluralism, the rule of law, and Romania's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Romania's party system is regulated by Law no. 14/2003 on political parties; the law initially mandated a list of 25,000 supporters, residing in at least 18 counties and the Municipality of Bucharest, for a political party to be formally registered.
Nevertheless, in February 2015, the unregistered Pirate Party of Romania (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Partidul Pirat din România) filed a complaint to the Constitutional Court, arguing that the list requirement is a violation of the constitutional provisions on freedom of association. The Court subsequently struck down the requirement as unconstitutional, and on 6 May 2015, the Romanian Parliament approved a modified version of the law, which allows the formation of a political party with 3 signatures.[8] [9]
The current political parties with parliamentary representation, in the order of the total number of representatives they hold in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, are the following ones:
| Logo | Name | Abbr. | Founded | Leader | Ideology | Position | Deputies | Senators | MEPs | European affiliation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Democratic Party (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Partidul Social Democrat) | PSD | 1989[10] 2001[11] | Marcel Ciolacu | Social democracy, Social conservatism | PES | ||||||
| National Liberal Party (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Partidul Național Liberal) | PNL | 1875[12] 1990[13] | Nicolae Ciucă | EPP | |||||||
| Save Romania Union (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Uniunea Salvați România) | USR | 2016 | Cătălin Drulă | Anti-clericalism,[14] [15] Secularism,[16] Pro-Europeanism | Centre to centre-right | Renew | |||||
| Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor) | AUR | 2019 | George Simion | Right-wing to far-right | ECR[17] | ||||||
| Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România), (Hungarian: Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség) | UDMR RMDSZ | 1989 | Hungarian minority interests, Social conservatism, Regionalism, Pro-Europeanism | Centre-right | EPP | ||||||
| Force of the Right (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Forța Dreptei) | FD | 2021 | Ludovic Orban | Christian democracy, Liberal conservatism, Right-wing populism, Pro-Europeanism | |||||||