Social Democratic Party (Romania)

Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party; Partidul Social Democrat
President	Victor Ponta
Executive President	Liviu Dragnea
Leader in the Senate	Ilie Sârbu
Leader in the Chamber of Deputies	Mircea Dușa
Leader in the European Parliament	Cătălin Ivan
Founder and Honorary President	Ion Iliescu
Founded	1990 (PSDR); 1992 (FDSN); 1993 (PDSR); 16 January 2001 (as PSD)
Merger of	PDSR and PSDR
Headquarters	Şos. Kiseleff nr. 10 Bucharest
Youth wing	Social Democratic Youth
Women's wing	OFSD
Membership (2012)	409,833
Ideology	Social democracy; Third Way
Political position	Centre-left
National affiliation	Social Liberal Union
International affiliation	Socialist International
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
European Parliament group	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
Colors	Red
Senate	63 / 176
Chamber of Deputies	159 / 412
European Parliament	11 / 33
County Council Presidents	22 / 41
County Councilors	452 / 1,393
Website
	http://www.psd.ro/
	Politics of Romania; Political parties; Elections

The Social Democratic Party (Romanian: Partidul Social Democrat, PSD) is the major social-democratic political party in Romania. The largest party in Parliament with 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 was formed in 1992, after the post-communist National Salvation Front broke apart. It adopted its present name after a merger with a minor social-democratic party in 2001. Since its formation, it has always been one of the two dominant parties of the country. The Social Democratic Party governed Romania from 1992 to 1996, also from 2000 to 2004 and currently does so since 7 May 2012 alongside allied-parties in the Social Liberal Union. PSD founder 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 Victor Ponta, Prime Minister of Romania, elected on 20 February 2010.

History [edit]

On 7 April 1992, the struggle for power inside the National Salvation Front (Romanian: Frontul Salvării Naţionale, 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 Naţionale, 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 Democraţiei Sociale in România, PDSR) upon merger with the Socialist Democratic Party of Romania (PDSR), the Republican Party and the Cooperative Party.

From 1994 to 1996 the PDSR ruled in coalition with three extremist parties - 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 lost the 1996 election, which was won by the multi-party coalition Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR).

In November 2000 the PDSR was back in power, 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 January 2001, and the resulting party took its present name, PSD.

In November 2004, Adrian Năstase, the PSD candidate, 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 lost to Traian Băsescu of the Justice and Truth alliance, who is therefore the current president. In the legislative elections of 2004, the PSD gained the largest share of the vote but because it did not have a majority, all the other major parties formed the Justice and Truth Alliance, which managed to gain a parliamentary majority and is currently in government, consigning the PSD to opposition.

Considered a young reformer, 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. Geoană's win was attributed by the media to last minute backroom dealing by party leaders opposed to Iliescu as well as to public gaffes made by Iliescu at the Party Congress, including using allegedly old communist terms when referring to his party colleagues.^[3]

On 17 April 2008, the Social Democratic Party and the Conservative Party announced they would form a political alliance for the 2008 local elections.^[4]

In February 2010, the Congress elected Victor Ponta as president.

On 6 February 2011, the PSD formed the Social Liberal Union political alliance with the Conservative Party and National Liberal Party.^[5]^[6]

On 22 November 2011, after refusing to step down as the President of the Senate of Romania following the request of the PSD leadership, Mircea Geoană, former leader of the party, was ousted as member, losing the confidence of his fellow colleagues in the Executive National Council of PSD where his dismissal was voted 50 to 5 while 3 absteined. In the following days he had to step down as President of the Upper House of the Romanian Parliament as he no longer had the support of a party group in the Senate.^[7]

Structure [edit]

Leadership of FSN, FDSN, PDSR and PSD [edit]

Presidents:

Ion Iliescu 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–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-present

Ion Iliescu
Oliviu Gherman
Adrian Năstase
Mircea Geoană
Victor Ponta

Controversies [edit]

Political opponent 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.^[8]

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.^[9]

Adrian Năstase temporarily "self-suspended" himself from the position on January 16, 2006 pending investigation of a scandal provoked by his wealth declaration, where he was accused of corruption.^[10]

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.^[11] PSD Senator Dan Şova, at the time party spokesman, claimed, on March 5, 2012, on the Money Channel that "no Jew suffered on Romanian territory, thanks to marshal Antonescu."^[12] 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.^[13] Following public outcry, Şova 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.^[14]