The Conservative Party (Romanian: Partidul Conservator, PC) was a conservative political party in Romania. It was founded in 1991, approximately two years after the fall of Communism in Romania, originally under the name Romanian Humanist Party (Romanian: Partidul Umanist Român, PUR). From 2005 until 3 December 2006, the party was a junior member of the Government of Romania. The party adopted the name Conservative Party on 7 May 2005. Subsequently, a little bit more than a decade after, more specifically in June 2015, it merged with the Liberal Reformist Party (PLR) to form the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE).
The Conservative Party (PC) stated that it promoted tradition, family, social solidarity, European integration, and a nationalism without chauvinism. It claimed the heritage of the historical Romanian Conservative Party, one of the two main political forces in Romania before the First World War. There was no direct, uninterrupted link between the two parties—the historical Conservative Party was dissolved after World War I—but the modern party sustained and embraced the values of the historical one.
Contents
History
The Conservative Party was founded as the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR) on 18 December 1991 and was for a time a member of the Humanist International. It changed its name in 2005 to reflect a shift in its ideology from centrist politics to more conservative, right-wing politics. The party was founded by former well known Securitatea collaborator and informer Dan Voiculescu, a post-1989 wealthy businessman who formally gave control of his companies to relatives. Voiculescu was the founder and former owner of an important media chain comprising among others the top-ranking TV channel Antena 1 and the newspapers Jurnalul Naţional and Gazeta Sporturilor. According to CNA (the state agency for broadcast licensing), he retains significant influence in the Romanian mass media, either through his foundation or through his family.
The party generally supported the interests of the Romanian middle class and especially those of small and middle-size business owners, and performed better electorally at a local level than at a national level. The PUR formed a coalition with the PDSR (now the Social Democratic Party), which won the 2000 general election. The PUR took part in the government under the condition of having the opportunity to promote the interests of its electorate. A Ministry for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises was thus formed, under the leadership of a PUR representative. After two years, the senior partner of the coalition, the PDSR, decided to suppress this Ministry, and consequently the PUR withdrew from the government.
In the local elections of June 2004, the PUR obtained 6% of the votes and, among others, managed to win in one important city, Bacău. During this election, the party strongly attacked the PSD and its alleged system of "local barons". After the surprising alliance of PUR with PSD, Romeo Stavarache, the mayor of Bacău, switched to the National Liberal Party (PNL) after a disagreement with Voiculescu, saying that he found it impossible to cooperate with the "local barons" he had struggled to defeat.
In the 2004 parliamentary election the PUR again formed an electoral alliance with the PSD. This was a surprising move, as the PUR had strongly attacked the PSD in the June local elections. However, it ensured that the PUR would be able to enter the parliament on the coattails of the much larger party. The elections gave a slight parliamentary plurality to the PSD-PUR coalition, while the new president Traian Băsescu came from the other major competing coalition, the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), formed by the PNL and Democratic Party (PD). This situation threatened a major political crisis, the President being unwilling to appoint a prime minister from the slightly larger parliamentary bloc, and the DA candidate for prime minister liable not to be ratified by the Parliament, which would have resulted in new parliamentary elections.
Notable members
Dan Voiculescu – founder and former president
Codruț Șereș
George Copos
Dan Tanasă
Codrin Ștefănescu
Electoral history
Legislative elections
Notes:
1 National Union of the Centre (UNC) members: PDAR, MER, and PUR.
2 Social Democratic Pole of Romania members: PDSR (59 senators and 139 deputies), PSDR (2 senators and 10 deputies), and PUR (4 senators and 6 deputies).
3 National Union PSD+PUR members: PSD (46 senators and 113 deputies) and PUR (11 senators and 19 deputies).
4 Soon after the elections, PUR broke the alliance and switched sides, joining Justice and Truth Alliance (DA).
5 Alliance PSD+PC members: PSD (48 senators and 110 deputies) and PC (1 senator and 4 deputies).
6 USL was an alliance of two smaller alliances: Centre Left Alliance (between PSD and UNPR) and Centre Right Alliance (between PNL and PC). Centre Left Alliance: PSD (58 senators and 149 deputies) and UNPR (5 senators and 10 deputies); Centre Right Alliance: PNL (51 senators and 101 deputies) and PC (8 senators and 13 deputies).
7 ALDE was created in June 2015 from a merger of PLR (a splinter of PNL) and PC.
Presidential elections
Notes:
1 Ion Iliescu was a member of PDSR, but endorsed by Social Democratic Pole of Romania (same acronym as the main party: PDSR), an alliance made of PDSR, PSDR, and PC.
2 Adrian Năstase was a member of PSD, but endorsed by National Union PSD+PUR, an alliance made of PSD and PC.
3 Victor Ponta was a member of PSD, but endorsed by an alliance made of PSD, UNPR, and PC.
European elections
Notes:
1 Alliance PSD+PC members: PSD (10 MEPs) and PC.
2 Social Democratic Union (USD) members: PSD (12 MEPs), PC, and UNPR (2 MEPs).