National Salvation Front (Romania)

National Salvation Front Council
Consiliul Frontul Salvării Naționale
AbbreviationCFSN
PredecessorGreat National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Romania
SuccessorProvisional Council of National Unity
Founded22 December 1989
Dissolved6 February 1990
TypeProvisional Governing Body
Purposedeliberative democracy
HeadquartersBucharest
Location
Official language
Romanian
President
Ion Iliescu
Prime Minister
Petre Roman
National Salvation Front
Frontul Salvării Naționale
AbbreviationFSN
Co-leadersIon Iliescu,
Petre Roman,
Dumitru Mazilu
Founded22 December 1989 (1989-12-22)
(as governing body)
6 February 1990 (1990-02-06)
(as political party)
Dissolved28 May 1993 (1993-05-28)
Split fromRomanian Communist Party
Succeeded byDemocratic Party (legally)
Democratic National Salvation Front (Iliescu faction)
HeadquartersBucharest
IdeologyBig tent[1]
Eurocommunism (briefly)[2][3]
Post-communism
Anti-communism
Social democracy[4][5][6]
Democratic socialism[7]
Left-wing populism[8]
Economic nationalism[9]
Political positionCentre-left[10] to left-wing
Colours      Blue, yellow, red
(Romanian Tricolour)
Party flag

The flag of the Revolution (1989), without the coat of arms.

The National Salvation Front (Romanian: Frontul Salvării Naționale, FSN) was the most important political organization formed during the Romanian Revolution in December 1989, which became the governing body of Romania in the first weeks after the collapse of the communist regime. It subsequently became a political party, the largest post-communist party, and won the 1990 election with 66% of the national vote, under the leadership of then-President Ion Iliescu, who was elected with 85% of the vote.

Iliescu nominated again Petre Roman as the Prime Minister of the first cabinet formed after the first free and fair elections. After the fourth ”mineriadă”, Roman was forced to resign. The controversy between the two national leaders was finalized in 1992, at the national Congress of FSN, when the party split in two: the Democratic National Salvation Front (FDSN), under the leadership of President Iliescu; and FSN, under the leadership of Petre Roman (in 1993, it was the renamed as the Democratic Party (PD).

The National Salvation Front (FSN) founded by Iliescu and Roman was the common root of two of the largest active political parties in post-communist Romania: the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Democratic Party (PD, later the Democratic Liberal Party, PDL, after the merger with a splinter group from PNL, the Liberal Democratic Party, PLD). In 2014, the second party (the former PD; then PDL) merged into the National Liberal Party (PNL).

  1. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20170824012657/http://revista22online.ro/3100/.html
  2. ^ "COMENTARIU Marius Oprea: Ion Iliescu minte la nouăzeci, ca la douăzeci". Mediafax.ro.
  3. ^ "ISTORIA FĂRĂ PERDEA / Încă o enigmă a Revoluţiei: Dumitru Mazilu, omul care s-a împotrivit "comunismului cu faţă umană" şi "ajutorului sovietic"".
  4. ^ "Partidele din România: Doua decenii de sciziuni si fuziuni – Cultura".
  5. ^ "Partidele politice participante la alegeri. Avocat COLTUC 0745150894". 28 October 2008.
  6. ^ "The Ideological Institutionalization of the Romanian Party System « Romanian Journal of Political Science".
  7. ^ Marginean, Ioan (1997). "Indicators of Democratization in Romania". Social Indicators Research. 42 (3): 353–366. doi:10.1023/A:1006868605688. JSTOR 27522290. S2CID 142583086.
  8. ^ Adam, Robert (28 November 2018). Doua veacuri de populism romanesc. Humanitas SA. ISBN 9789735063078.
  9. ^ ""Liberalul" Tăriceanu își dă arama pe față. Discurs preluat de la FSN-ul lui Iliescu: "Nu ne vindem țar". 28 October 2020.
  10. ^ https://feps-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Next-Left-Country-Case-Studies-Romania.pdf [bare URL PDF]