Romania

V

Government

Romania is governed according to a constitution drafted in 1991 to replace that of 1965. After the Ceauşescu regime was brutally deposed in December 1989, the Council of National Salvation, consisting predominantly of former Communists, wielded executive power. Presidential and legislative elections were held in May 1990. Under pressure from foreign aid donors a new constitution was approved by popular referendum in December 1991 and declared Romania to be a multi-party presidential republic that guarantees human rights and a free-market economy.

A

Executive and Legislature

Under the 1991 constitution, a president heads the government of Romania. The president is elected by the voters to a four-year term and is assisted by a prime minister, whom he or she appoints. The president also serves as commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces. The bicameral National Assembly is the country’s legislature. The lower house, or Chamber of Deputies, has 332 seats, including 18 guaranteed to ethnic minorities; the upper house, or Senate, has 147 seats. All members are elected to four-year terms by proportional representation. Executive power is vested in the president. In the 1992 presidential elections, Ion Iliescu was re-elected for a second term, but in the November 1996 presidential elections he lost to the centre-right candidate Emil Constantinescu. In December 2000 Constantinescu stepped down, and Iliescu returned to the presidency. Traian Basescu of the Democratic Party narrowly won the election in 2004.

B

Political Parties

Until the 1989 uprising, the leading political organization of Romania was the Romanian Communist Party, which was known from 1948 to 1965 as the Romanian Workers’ Party. The Party’s General Secretary, Nicolae Ceauşescu, was the most powerful political figure in the country, and the Communist Party controlled almost all aspects of the government and pervaded every aspect of social life. After Ceauşescu’s fall the Communist Party dissolved. May 1990 saw Romania’s first free multi-party elections since World War II.

In the 2004 elections an alliance of the Romanian Social Democratic Party, and the Humanist Party of Romania emerged as the dominant political grouping. It faced strong opposition from the Justice and Truth Alliance, composed of the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Party. Other major parties represented in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate include: the Greater Romania Party and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania. Many parties in Romania are short-lived, and mergers and coalitions of parties and political groupings are common.

C

Judiciary

The Supreme Court is Romania’s highest judicial authority, and its members supervise the lower courts; they are appointed by the president for a renewable term of six years. Lesser tribunals include district and local courts. Judges and public prosecutors are nominated by the Superior Council of the Magistracy, which also acts as a disciplinary court for the legal profession.

D

Local Government

A reorganization of local government in 1968 divided Romania into 39 (now 41) districts plus the city of Bucharest.