History of Romania since 1989 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

1989 revolution

1989 marked the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. A mid-December protest in Timişoara

Timisoara

Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...

against the eviction of a Hungarian minister (László Tőkés

László Tokés

László Tőkés is a Romanian politician of Hungarian ethnicity, currently serving as a Member of the European Parliament and Vice President of the European Parliament ....

) grew into a country-wide protest against the Ceauşescu régime, sweeping the dictator from power.

On December 21, President Nicolae Ceauşescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

had his apparatus gather a mass-meeting in Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

downtown in an attempt to rally popular support for his regime and publicly condemn the mass protests of Timişoara

Timisoara

. This meeting mirrored the mass-meeting gathered in 1968 when Ceauşescu had spoken out against the invasion of Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

by the Warsaw Treaty

Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...

countries. This time however, the people turned angry and riot broke out. During the events of the following week, marked by confusion and street fighting, it is estimated that 1,051 people lost their lives. To this day, the real number of casualties are unknown and so are the identities of the individuals responsible for them. Those responsible for the casualties are still called "the terrorists". Ceauşescu was arrested in Târgovişte

Târgoviste

Târgoviște is a city in the Dâmbovița county of Romania. It is situated on the right bank of the Ialomiţa River. , it had an estimated population of 89,000. One village, Priseaca, is administered by the city.-Name:...

. After a summary trial by a kangaroo court

Kangaroo court

A kangaroo court is "a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted".The outcome of a trial by kangaroo court is essentially determined in advance, usually for the purpose of ensuring conviction, either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or...

, he and his wife were executed on December 25.

During the Romanian Revolution of 1989

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

, power was taken by a group called the National Salvation Front (FSN), which gathered dissidents, both from within the Communist Party and non-affiliated. The FSN quickly assumed the mission of restoring civil order and immediately took seemingly democratic measures. The Communist Party was thus outlawed, and Ceauşescu's most unpopular measures, such as bans on abortion and contraception, were rolled back.

1990 - 1996

In the aftermath of the revolution, several parties which claimed to be successors of pre-World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

parties were formed. The most successful were the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party

Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (Romania)

The Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party is a Romanian Christian-Democratic party...

, the National Liberal Party

National Liberal Party (Romania)

The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...

(PNL) and the Romanian Social Democrat Party

Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct)

The Romanian Social Democratic Party was a social-democratic political party in Romania. It published the magazine România Muncitoare, and later Socialismul, Lumea Nouă, and Libertatea.-Early party:...

(PSDR). Their leadership was made of former political prisoners of the 1950s, repatriated émigrés and people which had not been affiliated with the Communist Party. As a reaction, the FSN declared it would participate in the elections as a political party. The announcement triggered a series of anti-government demonstrations in Bucharest. The already tense situation was aggravated by press campaigns. The newspapers, assuming either a strong pro-government or strong pro-opposition stance, issued attacks and tried to discredit the opposing side. The FSN, having a better organisational structure, and controlling the state administration, used the press still controlled by the state in its own advantage. FSN also organised counter-manifestations, gathering the support of the blue-collar workers in the numerous factories of Bucharest. As the anti-government protesters started to charge the Parliament, more groups of workers from around the country poured into Bucharest to protect the fragile government. The most notable among these groups where the coal miners of the Jiu Valley

Jiu Valley

The Jiu Valley is a region in southwestern Romania, in Hunedoara county, situated in a valley of the Jiu River between the Retezat Mountains and the Parâng Mountains...

, known in Romania for their 1977 strike

Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977

The Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 was the largest protest movement against the Communist regime in Romania before its final days, ushering in a period of intermittent labour unrest that would last a dozen years, and the most important challenge posed by a group of workers to the regime since...

against the Ceauşescu regime. The workers attacked the offices of opposition parties, however the government intervened and succeeded in re-establishing the order. These event were to be known as the first Mineriad

Mineriad

See also The 1990s: the rise and decline of miners' unionsA Mineriad is the term used to name any of the successive violent interventions of miners in Bucharest. These interventions were generally seen as aimed at wrestling policy changes or simply material advantages from the current political...

.

On February 28, less than a month later, another anti-government demonstration in Bucharest ended again with a confrontation between demonstrators and coal miners. This time, despite the demonstrators' pleas for non-violence, several people started throwing stones at the Government building. Riot police and army forces intervened to restore order, and on the same night, 4,000 miners rushed into Bucharest. This incident is known as the Mineriad of February 1990.

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held on May 20, 1990. Iliescu won with almost 90% of the popular vote and thus became the first elected President of Romania

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

. The FSN also secured more than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament. Petre Roman

Petre Roman

Petre Roman is a Romanian politician and a former Prime Minister of Romania. He served from 1989 to 1991, when his government was overthrown by the intervention of the miners led by Miron Cozma. Roman is a member of the Club of Madrid, grouping 66 democratic former heads of state and government...

, a professor at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest

Polytechnic University of Bucharest

Universitatea Politehnica din Bucureşti is a technical university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in 1864 based on the older technical school of Gheorghe Lazăr and it was renamed "Politehnica" in 1920.-History:...

, son of Communist official and veteran of the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

. The new government, which included some former low-key members of the Communist party, promised the implementation of some free market

Free market

A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...

reforms.

During the spring 1990 electoral campaign, the opposition parties organised a massive sit-in protest in down-town Bucharest, later known as the Golaniad
Golaniad
The Golaniad was a protest in Romania in the University Square, Bucharest. It was initiated by students and professors at the University of Bucharest....

. After the FSN won an overwhelming majority, most of the Bucharest protesters dispersed, however less than a hundred chose to remain in the square. The police efforts to evict them and re-establish traffic in central Bucharest two weeks after the elections was met with violence, and several state institutions were attacked (among them the Bucharest Police and the Interior Ministry). The freshly elected president, Ion Iliescu, issued a call to Romania's population to come and defend the government from further attacks. The main group to answer the call were the coal miners of Jiu Valley

Jiu Valley

The Jiu Valley is a region in southwestern Romania, in Hunedoara county, situated in a valley of the Jiu River between the Retezat Mountains and the Parâng Mountains...

, leading to the June 1990 Mineriad

June 1990 Mineriad

The June 1990 Mineriad was the suppression of an anti-National Salvation Front sit-in protests in Bucharest, Romania by the violent intervention of coal miners from the Jiu Valley, brought to Bucharest by the government to counter the rising violence of the protesters...

. Their intervention, under the leadership of union leader Miron Cozma

Miron Cozma

Miron Cozma is a former Romanian labor union organizer and leader of Romania's Jiu Valley coal miners' union...

, was however especially brutal, as they attacked not only anti-government protesters, but also bystanders and the offices of opposition parties, and newspapers supportive of the latter. The miners, some of them wielding wooden clubs, axes and other make-shift weapons, confronted the demonstrators and forcefully cleared University Square. After the situation calmed down, president Iliescu publicly thanked the miners for their help in restoring the order in Bucharest, and requested their return to the Jiu Valley. The general national and international media portrayal of the miners involvement in these events have been disputed by the miners, who claimed that most of the violence was perpetrated by government agents that were agitating the crowds; these claims, and a growing public suspicion of the sequence and orchestration of events, led to Parliamentary and other inquiries. Parliamentary inquiries showed that members of the government intelligence services were involved in the instigation and manipulation of both the protesters and the miners, and later, in June 1994, a Bucharest court found two former Securitate officers guilty of ransacking and stealing $100,000 from the house of a leading opposition politician.

In December 1991, a new constitution was drafted and subsequently adopted, after a popular referendum. March 1992 marked the split of the FSN into two groups: the Democratic National Salvation Front

Social Democratic Party (Romania)

The Social Democratic Party is the major social-democratic political party in Romania. It 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...

(FDSN), led by Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu served as President of Romania from 1990 until 1996, and from 2000 until 2004. From 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 until his retirement in 2008, Iliescu was a Senator for the Social Democratic Party , whose honorary president he remains....

and the Democrat Party (PD), led by Petre Roman

Petre Roman

. Iliescu won the presidential elections in September 1992 by a clear margin, and his FDSN won the general elections held at the same time. With parliamentary support from the nationalist National Unity Party of Romanians (PUNR), Greater Romania Party

Greater Romania Party

The Greater Romania Party is a Romanian radical right-wing, ultra-nationalist political party, led by Corneliu Vadim Tudor. The party is sometimes referred to in English as the Great Romania Party....

(PRM), and the ex-communist Socialist Workers' Party (PSM), a new government was formed in November 1992 under Prime Minister Nicolae Văcăroiu

Nicolae Vacaroiu

Nicolae Văcăroiu is a Romanian politician, member of the Social Democratic Party, who served as Prime Minister between 1992 and 1996. Before the 1989 Revolution he worked at the Committee for State Planning, together with Theodor Stolojan....

, an economist and former bureaucrat during the Ceauşescu administration. The government took some limited steps towards the liberalisation of the market, started a privatisation program through management employee buyouts and sought to further relations with the Euro-Atlantic structures (the EEC

European Economic Community

The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...

/EU and the NATO). The FDSN changed its name to Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) in July 1993 after the merger with several smaller parties. This coalition dissolved before the November 1996 elections. This coincided with the bankruptcy of the Caritas pyramid scheme, a major scandal at the time in Romania.

1996 - 2000

Emil Constantinescu

Emil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist...

of the Democrat Convention of Romania (CDR) won the second round of the 1996 presidential elections by a comfortable margin of 9% and thus replaced Iliescu as chief of state. (see: Romanian election, 1996)

PDSR won the largest number of seats in Parliament, but was unable to form a viable coalition. Constituent parties of the CDR joined the Democratic Party (PD), the National Liberal Party

National Liberal Party (Romania)

(PNL) and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) to form a centrist coalition government, holding 60% of the seats in Parliament. This coalition of sorts frequently struggled for survival, as decisions were often delayed by long periods of negotiations among the involved parties. Nevertheless, this coalition was able to implement some reforms

Reform movement

A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes...

. The new coalition government, under prime minister Victor Ciorbea

Victor Ciorbea

Victor Ciorbea is a Romanian politician. He was the Mayor of Bucharest in 1996-1997 and, after his resignation from office, Prime Minister of Romania from 12 December 1996 to 30 March 1998.-Biography:...

remained in office until March 1998, when Radu Vasile

Radu Vasile

Radu Vasile is a Romanian politician, historian and poet.-Education and Professional Activity:*1967 - Graduate, with exceptional results, of the Faculty of History - University of Bucharest...

(PNTCD) took over as prime minister. The period was marked by frequent quarrels inside the coalition, dubious bankruptcy of several major banks, and a general economic downturn. Deteriorating living conditions provoked a new mineriad

Mineriad

in 1999. After several battles with the police on the road towards Bucharest, Radu Vasile succeeded in convincing miners leader Miron Cozma to back down, and send the miners home. A politically independent, Mugur Isărescu

Mugur Isarescu

Mugur Isărescu is the Governor of the National Bank of Romania. From 22 December 1999 to 28 November 2000 he served as Prime Minister. He is a member of the Romanian Academy....

, the governor of the National Bank, eventually replaced Radu Vasile as head of the government, helping stabilise the Romanian economy significantly affected by the previous governments.

2000 - 2004

Iliescu's Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (Romania)

, now renamed the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR), returned to power in the 2000 elections

Romanian presidential election, 2000

These are the results of the Romanian presidential election of November 26, run-off held on December 10, 2000:-First round:-Run-off:...

, and Iliescu won a second constitutional term as the country's president. Adrian Năstase

Adrian Nastase

Adrian Năstase is a Romanian politician who was the Prime Minister of Romania from December 2000 to December 2004.He competed as the Social Democratic Party candidate in the 2004 presidential election, but was defeated by centre-right Justice and Truth Alliance candidate Traian Băsescu.He was...

became the Prime Minister of the newly formed government. The opposition frequently accused the government of corruption and attempt to control to press. The government was also accused of allowing local elected leaders of the PSD to gain significant influence over the administration of their region, which allegedly used the newly-found power for personal interests. Nevertheless, the Romanian economy witnessed the first years of growth after the 1989 revolution. The government also started several projects for social housing, restarted the construction of the motorway connecting Bucharest to Romania's main port, Constanţa, and began the construction of a motorway across the western region of Transylvania. These projects however only had limited success.

In the aftermath of the 2001 September 11 attacks, Romania backed the US on its "war on terrorism", giving overflight rights to the USAF during the US invasion of Afghanistan

War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...

. The country's military also actively participated both in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force

International Security Assistance Force

The International Security Assistance Force is a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan established by the United Nations Security Council on 20 December 2001 by Resolution 1386 as envisaged by the Bonn Agreement...

and the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2004, Romania was finally accepted as a full member of the NATO. The Năstase government also took steps towards European integration. The government successfully finalised negotiations with the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

on most subjects, and 2007 was set as a tentative date for admission into the Union.

2004 - 2007

Presidential and parliamentary elections took place again on November 28, 2004. No political party was able to secure a viable parliamentary majority. There was no winner in the first round of the presidential elections. Finally, the joint PNL-PD candidate, Traian Băsescu

Traian Basescu

Traian Băsescu is the current President of Romania. After serving as the mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, he was elected president in the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2004 and inaugurated on December 20, 2004...

, won the second round on December 12, 2004 with 51% of the vote and thus became the third post-revolutionary president of Romania.

The PNL leader, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu

Calin Popescu-Tariceanu

Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu is a Romanian politician. He was the Prime Minister of Romania between 29 December 2004 and 22 December 2008...

, was assigned the difficult task of building a coalition government excluding the PSD. In December 2004, the new coalition government (PD, PNL, PUR (Romanian Humanist Party) and UDMR) under prime minister Tăriceanu was sworn in. Soon disputes appeared between the parties of the coalition. Prime minister Tăriceanu, leader of the PNL, and president Băsescu, constitutionally independent but generally regarded as de facto leader of the PD, accused each other of supporting illegitimate business interests. The PUR left the coalition after Băsescu declared that the party's participation in the coalition was an "immoral solution", leaving the government with limited support in the Parliament. The frequent disputes between the prime-minister and the president also caused a faction of the PNL supportive of Băsescu to split and form the Liberal Democratic Party (Romania)

Liberal Democratic Party (Romania)

The Liberal Democratic Party was a political party in Romania, formed in December 2006 as a breakaway group from the National Liberal Party...

.

Romania joined the European Union

European Union

(EU), alongside Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, on January 1, 2007.

After 2007

The disputes between the PNL prime-minister and the president ultimately led to the expulsion of the PD ministers from the government. The PNL and UDMR formed a minority government

Minority government

A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...

, with intermittent Parliament support from the PSD. As the conflict between the president and parliamentary parties continued, in May 2007, the PNL, PSD, PC (former PUR) and UDMR voted to impeach Băsescu for alleged violations of the constitutions. Nicolae Văcăroiu

Nicolae Vacaroiu

, the president of the Senate

Senate of Romania

The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...

became interim president, however Băsescu was reinstated as a national referendum turned down the proposal to depose him. The relations between the president and the parliamentary parties other than PDL (formed after PD and PLD united) remained tense for the following 2 years. EU membership and the reduced government powers favoured foreign investment, and the Romanian economy continued on the upward trend set during the Năstase government.

In the late 2008 the government lost the legislative elections, while PSD and PLD won roughly the same number of seats. An uneasy coalition was set up between the two parties, with the PDL president, Emil Boc

Emil Boc

Emil Boc is the Prime Minister of Romania, having served since December 2008. In June 2004, he was elected Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, the largest city in Transylvania. Boc is also the president of the Democratic Liberal Party, who designated him as Prime Minister in 2008. On October 13, 2009, his...

, as prime-minister. Scandals soon erupted, with the PSD Interior minister changed several ties amid allegations of corruption. The PDL youth minister was forced to resign after the Parliament commission accused her of siphoning government money towards the European Parliament campaign of Elena Băsescu

Elena Băsescu

Elena Băsescu, sometimes referred to as EBA, is a Romanian politician, secretary general of the youth wing of Romania's Democratic Liberal Party, and a Member of the European Parliament. She is the youngest daughter of Traian Băsescu, the current President of Romania. She was formerly a model, and...

, the president's daughter. Accusation of funds mismanagement also appeared against the PDL minister of tourism, Elena Udrea

Elena Udrea

Elena Gabriela Udrea is a Romanian politician. A member of the Democratic Liberal Party , she has been a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Bucharest since 2008...

, a close ally of the president. In autumn 2008, during the electoral campaign for the November Presidential elections, the PSD accused coalition party PDL of planning to rig the elections in favour of Traian Băsescu. As a result, Emil Boc expelled the PSD minister of interior from the government, and PSD left the coalition in protest. Soon after, the Parliament approved a motion of no confidence

Motion of no confidence

A motion of no confidence is a parliamentary motion whose passing would demonstrate to the head of state that the elected parliament no longer has confidence in the appointed government.-Overview:Typically, when a parliament passes a vote of no...

, dismissing the PDL government. The Parliament also voted down two PDL government proposed by Traian Băsescu, and insisted on the creation of a PSD-PNL-UDMR government headed by FDGR

Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania

The Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania is a centrist political party representing the German minority in Romania. It was founded at the end of 1989. Despite originally being a German minority party, the party is popular also with many ethnic Romanians, notably in parts of Transylvania...

-member Klaus Iohannis, proposition turned down by Băsescu. Traian Băsescu succeeded to marginally win the second round of the presidential election, against PSD candidate Mircea Geoană

Mircea Geoana

Dan Mircea Geoană is a Romanian politician, who served as president of the upper chamber of the Romanian Parliament, the Senate from December 20, 2008 until he was revoked by the senators on November 23, 2011. From 21 April 2005 until 21 February 2010 he was the head of the Partidul Social...

, amid allegations of fraud. Emil Boc

Emil Boc

was reinstated as prime-minister in a PDL-UDMR government, with the help of splinter groups of PSD and PNL. In the late 2009 and 2010 Romania was heavily hit by the worldwide economic crisis

Late 2000s recession in Europe

While the recession of the late 2000s began in the United States, the crisis spread to Europe rapidly and has affected much of the region with several countries already in recession as of February 2009, and most others suffering marked economic setbacks...

, causing several massive protests organised by trade unions. The opposition and the press frequently accused the government of preferential allocation of funds to its members, as well as generalised corruption.