Social Democratic Party (Romania)

The Social Democratic Party (Romanian: Partidul Social Democrat, PSD) is the largest social democratic political party in Romania and also the largest overall political party in the country, aside from European Parliament level, where it is the second largest by total number of political representatives (i.e. MEPs), after the National Liberal Party (PNL). It was founded by Ion Iliescu, Romania's first democratically elected president at the 1990 Romanian general election. 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
AbbreviationPSD
PresidentMarcel Ciolacu
Secretary-GeneralPaul Stănescu
First-Vice PresidentsGabriela Firea
Sorin Grindeanu
Honorary PresidentIon Iliescu
Leader in the SenateLucian Romașcanu
Leader in the Chamber of DeputiesAlfred Simonis
Leader in the European ParliamentDan Nica
Founded10 July 1993 (1993-07-10) (PDSR)
16 June 2001 (2001-06-16) (merger)
Merger ofPDSR
PSDR
Preceded byDemocratic National Salvation Front
HeadquartersȘoseaua Kiseleff 10,
Bucharest
Youth wingSocial Democratic Youth
Women's wingOFSD
Membership (2015)530,000
Ideology
Political positionCentre-left[A]
National affiliationRed 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)
European affiliationParty of European Socialists
International affiliationProgressive Alliance
Socialist International
European Parliament groupProgressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
Colours  Red
Senate
49 / 136
[a]
Chamber of Deputies
107 / 330
[b]
European Parliament
8 / 33
Mayors
1,362 / 3,176
County Presidents
20 / 41
County Councilors
362 / 1,340
Local Council Councilors
13,820 / 39,900
Ministers
9 / 18
[c]
Party flag
Website
psd.ro

  • a. ^ 1 senator from PUSL in PSD parliamentary group
  • b. ^ 4 deputies from PUSL in PSD parliamentary group
  • c. ^ + the current Prime Minister and a Deputy Prime Minister
^ A: The party has also been labelled as catch-all

It is a member of the Progressive Alliance (PA), which was founded in 2013, Socialist International (SI), and Party of European Socialists (PES). As of 2015, the PSD had 530,000 members.

PSD traces its origins to the Democratic National Salvation Front (FDSN), a 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). The present name was adopted after a merger with the smaller Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR) in 2001.

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.

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