Social Democratic Party (Romania)

Social Democratic Party
Partidul Social Democrat
AbbreviationPSD
PresidentMarcel Ciolacu
Secretary-GeneralPaul Stănescu
First Vice PresidentsGabriela Firea
Sorin Grindeanu
Honorary PresidentIon Iliescu
Leader in the SenateLucian Romașcanu
Leader in the Chamber of DeputiesAlfred Simonis
Leader in the European ParliamentMihai Tudose
FoundersFDSN:[1][a]
List
PSD:
Adrian Năstase
Alexandru Athanasiu
Founded10 July 1993; 31 years ago (1993-07-10) (as PSDR)
16 June 2001; 23 years ago (2001-06-16) (Current form)
Merger of
HeadquartersȘoseaua Kiseleff 10, Bucharest
Student wingLeague of Social Democratic Students[3]
Youth wingSocial Democratic Youth
Women's wingOFSD
Membership (2015)530,000[needs update]
Ideology
Political positionCentre-left to left-wing[c][21][22][23]
National affiliationRed Quadrilateral
(1992–1996)
Social Democratic Pole of Romania (2000–2004)
National Union PSD+PUR (2004–2005)
Alliance PSD+PC (2008–2009)
Social Liberal Union
(2011–2014)
Centre Left Alliance
(2012–2014)
Social Democratic Union (2014–2019)
National Coalition for Romania (2021–2024)
European affiliationParty of European Socialists
European Parliament groupProgressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
International affiliationProgressive Alliance
Socialist International
Colours  Red
  White
Senate
49 / 136
[d][24]
Chamber of Deputies
107 / 330
[e][25]
European Parliament
11 / 33
[26]
Mayors
1,362 / 3,176
[27]
County Presidents
25 / 41
[28]
County Councilors
362 / 1,340
[27]
Local Council Councilors
13,820 / 39,900
[27]
Ministers
9 / 18
[29]
Party flag
Website
psd.ro

The Social Democratic Party (Romanian: Partidul Social Democrat, PSD) is the largest political party in Romania. It is also the largest social democratic[30][31] political party in the country. It was founded by Ion Iliescu, Romania's first democratically elected president at the 1990 Romanian general election.[32][33][34][35][36] It is currently part of the National Coalition for Romania (CNR), which is a big tent grand coalition comprising also the National Liberal Party (PNL). The CNR formerly included the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) until mid June 2023.

It is a member of the Progressive Alliance (PA), which was founded in 2013,[37] Socialist International (SI),[38] and Party of European Socialists (PES).[39] As of 2015, the PSD had 530,000 members.[40][needs update]

PSD traces its origins to the Democratic National Salvation Front (FDSN), a leftist breakaway group established in 1992 from the center-left National Salvation Front (FSN) established after 1989. In 1993, this merged with three other parties to become the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (Romanian: Partidul Democrației Sociale in România, PDSR), also translated as the Social Democracy Party of Romania.[41][42] The present name was adopted after a merger with the smaller Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR) in 2001.[43]

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, PDL) and again between May 2012 and March 2014 (as part of the Social Liberal Union, USL). PSD left government after former prime minister, Victor Ponta resigned in November 2015, only for PSD to return as the senior governing party in January 2017, shortly after it achieved a major victory in the 2016 Romanian legislative election. The party remained in power at governmental level until 2019, before being voted down in the parliament and then endorsing a PNL minority government between 2019 and 2020. Subsequently, it entered opposition between 2020 and 2021, before eventually returning to government within the CNR coalition in late 2021.

Party founder Ion Iliescu is the only PSD candidate to become President of Romania, he served in office from the 1989 to 1996, and again from 2000 to 2004.

Currently, PSD is the largest party in the Parliament of Romania with initially 47 seats in the Senate of Romania and 110 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (as obtained at the 2020 Romanian legislative election), it also has the largest number of mayors, as well as the second largest number of local and county councillors and county presidents (after PNL), remaining the biggest and most influential political force in the country to the present day.[44][45]

  1. ^ https://www.ujmag.ro/drept/diverse/partidul-social-democrat-1992-2016-romania-postcomunista-o-istorie-a-partidelor-politice-in-interviuri-si-documente-volumul-ii/rasfoire/ [bare URL]
  2. ^ "Șerban Nicolae, după ce a demisionat din PSD: Candidez pentru un nou mandat de senator, din partea Partidului Ecologist Român - HotNews.ro". 22 October 2020.
  3. ^ "Liga Studenților PSD are președinte din Timișoara". 24 June 2023.
  4. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2020). "Parties and Elections in Europe". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Este PSD un partid social-democrat? | Revista 22". 4 April 2017.
  6. ^ ""PSD nu este un partid social-democrat" – DW – 23.11.2018". Deutsche Welle.
  7. ^ "Rumänien führt "Steuer gegen Gier" ein". Deutsche Welle. 22 December 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference DUV was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b Mihăilescu, Daniel (2019). "Rumänien startet EU-Ratsvorsitz mit neuer Attacke gegen Justizsystem". Die Presse. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  10. ^ Krökel, Ulrich (10 March 2017). "Aufgefallen: Der stille Anführer". Publik-Forum.de (in German). Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference DUV1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Carmen Paun was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Ban, Cornel (12 December 2016). "Romania: a social democratic anomaly in eastern Europe?". openDemocracy. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  14. ^ Dąborowski, Tomasz (14 December 2016). "The Social Democrats' triumph in Romania". OSW. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  15. ^ "Marcel Ciolacu vrea Bac la Religie: România - una dintre cele mai sigure și tolerante țări din lume".
  16. ^ "PSD va susține în Parlament ca Religia să fie materie la bac. Ciolacu: Ce anume ne deranjează? Suntem creștini". 17 March 2023.
  17. ^ "Marcel Ciolacu, despre Religia ca materie de Bacalaureat: Suntem creştini, ne-am crescut copiii în valorile creştine". 17 March 2023.
  18. ^ "Ciolacu: Aș vrea o tendință mai mare către un patriotism economic în următorul program de guvernare". 26 March 2023.
  19. ^ "Marcel Ciolacu explică ce este "patriotismul economic" propus de PSD". 27 March 2023.
  20. ^ "Romanian Social Democrats to pursue "economic patriotism"". 20 March 2023.
  21. ^ "Romania: Parties at a glance".
  22. ^ "PARTIDUL SOCIAL-DEMOCRAT (P.S.D.)".
  23. ^ "PSD si UNPR vor forma o alianta politica de centru-stanga". 13 July 2012.
  24. ^ "Grupuri parlamentare, Senatul României" [Parliamentary groups, Romanian Senate]. Senat (in Romanian). Senate of Romania. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  25. ^ "Camera Deputaţilor, legislatura 2020–prezent" [Chamber of Deputies, 2020–present legislature]. CDEP (in Romanian). Chamber of Deputies of Romania. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  26. ^ "2019 European election results". European Parliament. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  27. ^ a b c "Rezultate finale 27 Septembrie 2020" [Final results 27 September 2020] (in Romanian). Central Election Bureau of Romania. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  28. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2024 local election results was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2020 Romanian parliamentary election was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  30. ^ Almeida, Dimitri (2012). The Impact of European Integration on Political Parties: Beyond the Permissive Consensus. CRC Press. p. 71. ISBN 9781136340390. Retrieved 2 November 2021 – via Google Books.
  31. ^ "Romania – Political parties". European Election Database. Norwegian Centre for Research Data. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  32. ^ Hogea, Alina. "Coming to Terms with the Communist Past in Romania: An Analysis of the Political and Media Discourse Concerning the Tismăneanu Report". Studies of Transition States and Societies. 2: 16–30.
  33. ^ Tismăneanu, Vladimir (7 July 2011). "225. Romania's First Post-Communist Decade: From Iliescu to Iliescu". Wilson Center. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  34. ^ Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (13 October 2008). "Romania Clears Ex-President Of Murder Charges". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  35. ^ "Ion Iliescu: Romania's ex-leader charged with crimes against humanity". BBC News. 8 April 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  36. ^ "Dosarul Revoluției, în care Ion Iliescu e acuzat de infracțiuni împotriva umanității, a fost restituit de ÎCCJ la Parchetul Militar". www.digi24.ro (in Romanian). No. 22 June 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  37. ^ "Parties & Organisations". Progressive Alliance. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  38. ^ "Full list of member parties and organisations". Socialist International. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  39. ^ "Parties Map". Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  40. ^ "Alegeri cu un singur candidat. 530.000 de membri PSD sunt așteptați la urne". 10 October 2015.
  41. ^ "Social Democracy Party of Romania".
  42. ^ "M3 C25 - Tematica istorica - PDSR - Partidul democratiei sociale din Romania".
  43. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  44. ^ Cite error: The named reference Necsutu 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  45. ^ Cite error: The named reference Necsutu 2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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