Romania
Political Environment
The year 2004 witnessed vigorous developments on the Romanian political stage, including the holding of local elections in June and combined parliamentary and presidential elections in November-December. They all were marked by political twists that tipped the balance against the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD).
The local elections on June 6th and 20th gave an indication of PSD’s diminishing support. Although the party managed to get the largest number of mayors elected, it lagged behind its chief rival, the opposition Justice and Truth Alliance (DA) comprising of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Party (PD), in the number of votes received. During the runoffs the PSD garnered 40.67% of the vote, while the DA ended up with 43.40%. Were the November parliamentary elections to produce the same ratio, the opposition alliance would have a slight edge in terms of parliamentary representation over the PSD, which would leave the decisive say in the formation of the new government in the hands of the three smaller above-the-electoral-threshold parties - the Greater Romania Party (PRM), the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR), and the Humanist Party (PUR).
The relatively dull election campaign preceding the presidential and parliamentary elections was stirred up by the surprise withdrawal of one of the major presidential candidates. Theodor Stolojan, leader of the PNL and co-leader of the opposition DA, pulled out of the run on October 2nd due to alleged health problems, also resigning from his positions in the PNL and the DA. He named PNL Vice President Calin Popescu Tariceanu president of the party and co-leader of the DA Alliance. Stolojan’s pullout allowed for rumours of a political strategy on behalf of the DA, aimed at the replacement of Stolojan, who was not considered reliable enough to withstand current Prime Minister Adrian Nastase’s competition, with the more reliable candidate in the face of Traian Basescu.
October opinion polls indicated that Adrian Nastase from the PSD PUR Union formed by the ruling Social Democrats and the Humanistic Party was polling at between 35 and 45 %, while Traian Basescu was trailing Nastase by three to seven points. Another candidate, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, president of the nationalist PRM, was running at between 9 and 15 % of the votes. The situation pictured by the same polls as regards the parliamentary elections did not differ much from the above. The PSD PUR topped the list with 39 to 43 %. The DA Alliance came second with 35 to 39 %, while the PRM ranked third with 11 to 13 %.
The November 28th general elections saw the PSD/PUR coalition securing 34 % of the vote, thus winning by a slim margin of barely one point in front of its main opposition rival in the face of the centrist DA Alliance. PRM received around 13 %, while the UDMR got around 8 %, easily clearing the 5-percent threshold needed to enter parliament.
As to the presidential poll, results split along identical lines. Adrian Nastase of the PSD got around 38 % and Traian Basescu of the DA Alliance - around 35 %t. PRM leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor accumulated the surprising 12 %. Thus, Adrian Nastase and Traian Basescu were to contend for the presidential office in the December 12th runoff. Its outcome largely depended on the slant of Tudor’s supporters. Traian Basescu took a hairbreadth victory of 52.2 % as compared to 48.8 % for Nastase in the second round, having staked on a more nationalistically oriented agenda, thus securing the support of the PRM electorate.
However, Basescu’s DA Alliance failed to secure a parliamentary majority, winning 161 of 469 available parliamentary seats in the November 28th parliamentary elections compared to 189 for Nastase’s PSD, accumulated mainly in rural areas. Thus, Romania faced a precarious political situation that could easily lead to early elections given a failure to set up a sustainable governing coalition.
Romanian political elite opted for a broad ruling coalition comprising of PNL, PD, UDMR and PUR. PNL leader, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, was appointed Prime Minister on December 22nd 2004. The new government was approved by the Parliament by 265 votes to 200 on December 28th. The governing programme of the new cabinet is of a liberal nature, and was adopted on December 28th 2004. It featured the major shortcomings pointed out in the European Commission’s 2004 Regular Report. The programme foresees strengthening of the democratic system and the rule of law, safeguarding individual freedoms, full restitution, economic and social cohesion, as well as Romania’s full integration in the economic and Euro-Atlantic security structures.
Midway in 2005, as a result of the slow governmental response to heavy flooding in western Romania, Tariceaunu’s cabinet started to suffer stark criticism of its general performance. Though it still enjoyed wide support, polls indicated that its rating was dropping. President Basescu’s argued that the four-party coalition prevented the centrist DA Alliance from implementing its reformist agenda. Again from the presidency originated the idea of calling early elections.
Furthermore, the relationship between President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, both members of the DA Alliance, began cooling in the middle of July. That same month the Alliance decided to call early elections to try to boost its thin majority in parliament. For that to happen, Tariceanu had to resign. After initially agreeing to do so, he later changed his intentions and chose to stay on, backing his decision with the argument of the urgent need for alleviation efforts in the flooded regions. In August 2005 President Basescu reiterated his desire to call extraordinary parliamentary elections, but his fervour was cooled down by the EU openly expressed dislike with a possible parliamentary crisis in the country, which could subvert Romania’s efforts towards EU accession in 2007.