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History and Government
History: Ethnic Romanians are descendants of the Dacians, one of the Romanised Thracian tribes that inhabited the Balkan peninsula during the first millennium BC. After surviving numerous invasions and regional upheavals, during which provinces were annexed variously to Hungary, Austria and the Ottoman Empire, Romania became an independent country with a monarchy in 1877. Romania entered the Second World War on the side of the Axis powers but, following military defeats and internal political pressure, the regime was overthrown in 1944 and replaced by a coalition government of communists, liberals and social democrats. The Communists gradually established their political hegemony within the Government.
In 1947 the monarchy was deposed and the Government declared the Romanian People's Republic. Nicolae Ceausescu assumed the post of First Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) in 1965 and held power in the country until the dramatic, bloody and largely unpredicted revolution during Christmas 1989. Despite being a member of the Warsaw Pact and the COMECON trading bloc, Romania was inclined to pursue independent policies, particularly with regard to military and foreign policy matters: Ceausescu refused to allow other Warsaw Pact military forces to maintain bases in the country, and in 1968 he vigorously denounced the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
In the era of Gorbachev, whose policies Ceausescu considered to be irrelevant for his own country, Romania lost this unique advantage as the draconian and uncompromising nature of the President's domestic policies - including forced assimilation of minorities, tight rationing of basic items and severe cultural and political repression - became apparent. In mid-December 1989, protests in the city of Timisoara triggered a nationwide revolt. A large part of the army defected from the regime to join the revolutionaries - under the loose umbrella of the National Salvation Front (NSF) - and for several days the country was in a state of open civil war as the pro-Ceausescu Securitate (the security forces) mounted a desperate bid to prevent the collapse of the regime, during which thousands were killed.
The President and his wife were captured, quickly tried and executed. The new government, under the provisional leadership of Ion Iliescu (the former Communist Central Committee Secretary) was faced with a number of acute problems: the pacification of the country; the disbanding of the Securitate; the restoration of the economy; and the need to prepare Romania for peaceful multi-party elections. Iliescu was confirmed in office by a presidential election in May 1990 while the Front achieved large majorities in both chambers of the National Assembly. The new Government of Prime Minister Petre Roman, composed mainly of young technocrats, started to introduce a reform programme similar to those elsewhere in Eastern Europe and worked hard to improve Romania's image abroad.
Foreign aid gradually resumed and the IMF approved a much-needed economic support package. The response at home, where the measures bit hard and quickly, was less generous. Violent civil unrest broke out on several occasions during 1990 between pro- and anti-NSF elements. Petre Roman resigned in September 1991. He was replaced by Teodor Stolojan, previously Finance Minister, who continued the policies pursued by Roman. Stolojan, who led a non-party interim government, successfully guided Romania's new constitution through the hurdles of a referendum and a vote in the National Assembly. It established Romania as a republic with a market economy and individual rights of free speech, religious adherence and private ownership.
The ruling National Salvation Front split into two factions led by Petre Roman and President Iliescu, who formed his own breakaway party, the Democratic National Salvation Front. Iliescu again prevailed at the presidential elections held in October 1992, capturing 60% of the vote; at simultaneous parliamentary elections, his party did less well but remained the largest bloc in the new assembly. The lack of an overall majority served to exacerbate the already severe tensions within the Romanian body politic, which persisted throughout the mid-1990s and hampered repeated efforts to put essential economic, political and social reforms into effect. Although all parties are agreed that such reforms are essential to achieving the nation's ultimate goal of joining the European Union, there are fundamental disagreements about the means.
| At the November 1996 elections, after renaming itself the Party of Social Democracy of Romania (PSDR), the DNSF again put up Ion Iliescu as its candidate for the presidency. Despite winning the first round, he was defeated at the run-off by his main rival, Emil Constantinescu of the Democratic Convention of Romania (DCR). This was a five-party alliance of parties opposing the former Communists and was successful in gaining control of the National Assembly as well as the presidency. Since taking office with, initially, ex-trade unionist Victor Ciorbea as Prime Minister, the ruling coalition of the DCR, Social Democrats and other smaller parties, has succumbed to the internal squabbles and instability which plagued its predecessor.
The Ciorbea Government fell in April 1998, to be replaced by a new administration under Radu Vasile. This administration proved no more capable of reversing the country's economic decline and was itself dismissed by President Constantinescu in December 1999, to be replaced by a four-party coalition led by Mugur Isrescu. Romania's chronic political instability is now starting to undermine the country's principal aspiration: membership of the EU. Romania is in the second wave of would-be members who, having signed Association Agreements, have begun the lengthy process of negotiating towards membership and may expect to achieve it around 2008.
Not least for that reason, economic reform remains the most important feature of the new government's programme. Abroad, Romania's main concerns - other than relations with the EU - are with neighbouring Hungary and Moldova. In the case of Hungary, the friction between the two countries resulting from discrimination against ethnic Hungarians resident in Romania has eased following a series of co-operation agreements between Budapest and Bucharest. The situation in Moldova, which has a mainly ethnic Romanian population but also a sizeable Slav element concentrated in the eastern province of Transnistria, has also been relatively calm since the secessionist crisis of 1993/94. A permanent settlement, which will also require the endorsement of the Ukrainian Government, has so far proved elusive.
Government: Under the provisions of the constitution adopted in December 1991, the legislature is a bicameral National Assembly, directly elected every four years, comprising the Assembly of Deputies (387 seats) and the Senate (119 seats). Executive power is vested in a government subordinate to the President, who is elected every four years and is limited to a maximum of two terms in office.
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