Social Democratic Party (Romania)
The Social Democratic Party (Romanian: Partidul Social Democrat, PSD) is the largest political party in Romania, though in the European Parliament, it is the second largest by total number of political representatives (i.e. MEPs), after the National Liberal Party (PNL).[27] It is also the largest social democratic[28][29] political party in the country. It was founded by Ion Iliescu, Romania's first democratically elected president at the 1990 Romanian general election.[30][31][32][33][34] 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.
Social Democratic Party Partidul Social Democrat
PSD
7 April 1992 (FDSN)
16 June 2001 (merger)
OFSD
530,000
Red Quadrilateral
(1992–1996)
Social Democratic Pole of Romania (2000–2004)
Social Liberal Union
(2011–2014)
Centre Left Alliance
(2012–2014)
National Coalition for Romania (2021–present)
It is a member of the Progressive Alliance (PA), which was founded in 2013,[35] Socialist International (SI),[36] and Party of European Socialists (PES).[37] As of 2015, the PSD had 530,000 members.[38]
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.[39] The present name was adopted after a merger with the smaller Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR) in 2001.[40]
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.[41][42]
Ideology and platform[edit]
Like its counterpart national-level members of the Party of European Socialists (PES), the PSD has a centre-left outlook and has been described as governing as centre-left,[65][66][67] but has also been described as pragmatic,[11] owing to its syncretic politics.[11][7] The PSD was formed as a result of the merger of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR), which had an internationalist social-democratic ideology, with the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR), whose governance was marked by a combination of social democracy, democratic socialism, labourism, pragmatism, left-wing populism, and nationalism.[68] The 2003 absorption of the Socialist Party of Labour (PSM) and the Socialist Party of the National Renaissance (PSRN) led to the strengthening of the left-wing nationalism component within the party.[69][70] Until 2021[71][72][73][74] unlike the majority of Western European PES party members and as other like-minded centre-left, social democratic parties in Central and Eastern European post-Communism, it has taken a more soft Eurosceptic[71] outlook,[73][74][75] though it is neutral in regards to European integration.[76] PSD stated that it endorses EU and NATO membership.[77][78][79][80][81] The party is more conservative than PES when it comes to social issues,[13][82][83] reflecting the country's social-conservative outlook,[84] including in its centre-right counterpart, the National Liberal Party (PNL).[12] It has been described as a left-wing nationalist[7][85][8] and left-wing populist[86][9][10] social democratic party.[12][87][88]
The party has been described as having centre-left rhetoric and economic policies, while being more conservative on personal and ethical matters. According to Florin Poenaru, "the movement led by Ion Iliescu was from the very beginning the party of local capitalists and not of the industrial proletariat. ... PSD was the party that aggregated the interests of the autochthonous capitalists, but whose electoral basis was the former industrial proletariat."[89] Poenaru states that PSD never said no to the neoliberal agenda but applied it rather slowly.[89] Andrei Pleșu once stated that the main post-Communist Romanian parties do not act according to some ideology or doctrine.[90]
Political analyst Radu Magdin said that the PSD is "a catch-all party: its values are conservative, its economic policy is liberal and it has a social, left-leaning rhetoric when it comes to public policies." An example is their calls for both tax cuts and pensions and wages increase in 2016.[11] Its more conservative outlook is owed to the social-conservative nature of post-Communist countries, and has been adopted by both the centre-left (PSD) and the centre-right (PNL).[91] For Cornel Ban, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Boston University, the PSD is an anomaly in Eastern Europe in that it was an ideal playground for right-wing populist parties but has seen the political left routinely win; this was in part because the political right and far-right were in government, including at the local level, during the post-Communist slumps which remained in the mind of many voters.[12] Journalist Jean-Baptiste Chastand said that the PSD-led pro-European government in Romania took a national conservative turn.[92] The historian Ioan Stanomir stated that PSD is a conservative party, that has nothing to do with the left,[93] while journalist Bogdan Tiberiu Iacob described the party as progressive-conservative.[77] PSD also opposed the mandatory refugee quotas.[94][95][96] Journalist Daniel Mihăilescu labeled the party as national populist.[97] Deutsche Welle stated that, unlike most European Social-democratic parties, PSD is against social progressivism and is strongly conservative.[98] Journalist and philosipher Andrei Cornea also stated that PSD is not a social-democratic party, but a patrimonial-conservative one, structured around vassalism and clientelism, whose essential electoral pool is formed by a poor, ignorant and especially devoid of civic conscience.[99] PSD has also ethno-nationalist factions.[100]
In regards to LGBT rights, in general, PSD opposes the recognition of same-sex marriages and civil partnerships. However, in 2018, then PSD president Liviu Dragnea hinted that PSD could support the recognition the civil partnership.[101][102][103] Also, in January 2001, it was the PSD-dominated Adrian Năstase's government that adopted the Emergency Ordinance no. 89/2001,[104] which eliminated Art. 200 of the Penal Code and adjusted other articles referring to sex offences to avoid discriminatory treatment of offenders, thus legalising same-sex relations.[105] This ordinance came into force in January 2002, after President Ion Iliescu (the founder of PSD) signed the new law.[106] However, the current president of the Social Democrats, Marcel Ciolacu, is a strong opponent to the recognition of same-sex marriage and the civil partnership.[107][108]
The party has strong connections with the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR), reflecting the party's social conservatism.[109][110][111][112][113]
Structure[edit]
President[edit]
The president of the party conducts the general activity of the party, the activity of the National Executive Committee and the National Permanent Bureau and responds to the Congress on the general work of the PSD. The president is elected by secret vote by the Congress for a four-year mandate and represents the party in the Romanian society, in relations with the central and local public authorities, as well as with other parties or organizations in the country or abroad.
Honorary President[edit]
PSD Honorary President is nominated by Congress for the four-year mandate of the party's recognized personalities. The Honorary President of the PSD participates with the right to vote in the work of the national governing bodies.
Secretary-General[edit]
The Secretary-General manages the functional services at the central level and the relationship with the county and Bucharest organizations. It coordinates the Executive Secretariat of the PSD with 7 to 9 executive secretaries. Executive secretaries shall be appointed by the National Executive Committee, on a proposal from the chair, after consulting the Secretary-General.
Permanent National Bureau[edit]
The Permanent National Bureau is the operative body for analyzing and deciding the party. It has the following composition: PSD President, PSD Honorary President, PSD Secretary General, PSD Deputy Chairpersons. At the National Permanent Bureau, the chairman of the National Council, the leaders of the parliamentary groups, the presidents of women and youth organizations, the treasurer, the director of the Social Democratic Institute, the representative of the county administrative council presidents, the mayors of municipalities and the representative of the National League of Mayors and PSD Councilors participate. The National Permanent Bureau meets weekly, usually Monday.
The Permanent National Bureau have the following duties:
Controversies[edit]
Political opponents have criticised PSD for harbouring former Romanian Communist Party (PCR) officials, and for allegedly attempting to control the Romanian mass media. By 2009, a number of its incumbent or former senior members have also been accused of corruption, interfering in the judiciary and using their political positions for personal enrichment.[114] As of 2015, founding member Ion Iliescu is facing prosecution on charges of crimes against humanity for his role in the June 1990 Mineriad,[115] while former president Liviu Dragnea was convicted for electoral fraud and for instigation to the abuse of public office and being indicted for forming an "organised criminal group" in 2018.[116] That same year, former president Victor Ponta had also been investigated for corruption but was ultimately acquitted.[117] Adrian Năstase temporarily self-suspended himself from the position on 16 January 2006, pending investigation of a scandal provoked by his wealth declaration, where he was accused of corruption.[118] Alleged text transcripts of PSD meetings surfaced on an anonymous website just before the 2004 Romanian general 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 genuine, though Geoană later retracted his statement.[119] Security expert Iulian Fota stated that PSD is a neocommunist anti-Western party backed by Russia.[120]
Politicians of the party have occasionally employed "utilitarian anti-Semitism", meaning that politicians who may usually not be antisemites played off certain antisemitic prejudices in order to serve their political necessities.[121] On 5 March 2012, PSD Senator Dan Șova, at that time the party spokesman, said on The Money Channel that "no Jew suffered on Romanian territory, thanks to marshal Antonescu."[122] 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.[123] Following public outcry, Șova 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.[124]
Between 2017 and 2019, the party, along with its former junior coalition partners, more specifically the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ), had unsuccessfully tried to pass a series of tremendously controversial laws related to the judicial system. In a 2018 preliminary opinion, the Venice Commission stated that the changes could severely undermine the independence of judges and prosecutors in Romania.[125] This unsuccessful endeavour committed by the former PSD–ALDE coalition was the basis for the nationwide 2017–2019 Romanian protests,[126] the largest in the country's entire history thus far.[127]