Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (Romania)

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (Romanian: Alianța Liberalilor și Democraților, ALDE) was a minor nominally liberal political party in Romania[1] which was officially absorbed in its entirety by the National Liberal Party (PNL), from which it initially seceded in 2015, during late March 2022.[9] Throughout its relatively short political history, it was mostly associated with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) at governance, firstly between 2014 and 2015 and the once more for the last time between 2017 and 2019.

Not to be confused with Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
Alianța Liberalilor și Democraților
PresidentDaniel Olteanu
Executive PresidentsCristian Dima
FounderCălin Popescu-Tăriceanu
Founded19 June 2015
Dissolved22 March 2022
Merger ofLiberal Reformist Party (PLR) and Conservative Party (PC)
Merged intoNational Liberal Party
Ideology
Political positionCentre[4][5] to centre-right[6][7][8]
Regional affiliationLiberal South East European Network
European affiliationAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (2015–2019)
International affiliationLiberal International (Observer)
Colours  Blue
  Gold
Website
alde.ro

History

The party was founded on 19 June 2015, following a merger of the Liberal Reformist Party (PLR) and the Conservative Party (PC).[10][11] On 19 November 2015, the party was admitted into the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.[12] At the 2016 legislative election which was held on 11 December 2016, ALDE received 5.6% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies (consequently gaining 20 seats there) as well as 6.0% of the vote at the Senate (consequently gaining 6 seats there).

On 19 December 2016, party co-presidents Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu and Daniel Constantin signed an collaboration protocol with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea to form a new coalition government with ALDE as the junior partner.[13] On 30 May 2019 the party withdrew from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.[14] The relation between ALDE Romania and ALDE Europe was strained after the ALDE-supported governmental coalition had passed laws that were deemed by the Venice Commission and ALDE Europe to undermine the independence of the judiciary.[15] The leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Guy Verhofstadt, had also previously participated at a rally of the then oppositional USR PLUS.[16]

Eventually, ALDE Romania withdrew from their coalition with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) on 26 August 2019 and moved into parliamentary opposition until the end of the legislature in 2020.[17] In 2020, ALDE merged with PRO Romania, forming a new political party under the moniker PRO Romania Social-Liberal (Romanian: PRO România Social-Liberal).[18]

During early 2021 however, ALDE seceded from PRO Romania due to internal frictions between Ponta and Popescu-Tăriceanu as well as due to poor results from both the local and legislative elections which were held throughout the previous year.[19] As of March 2021, ALDE is solely active at local political level in Romania, where it has a very feeble amount of mayors, county councillors, and local council councillors. It has also been in extra-parliamentary opposition to the PNL-USR PLUS-UDMR/RMDSZ government between late 2020 and late 2021.

However, during early 2022, ALDE switched to an extra-parliamentary support for the current governing grand coalition which is the National Coalition for Romania (or CNR for short) and is currently negotiating a very probable near future merger with the PNL, but without their former president Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, who is no longer even a member of the party. In March 2022, ALDE was officially absorbed by the PNL.[20]

Leadership
  Also served as Prime Minister and Senate President.
Nº Name
Born - Died		 Portrait Term start Term end Duration
1 Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
(1952– 		19 June 2015 April 2017 1 year, 9 months and 14 days
Daniel Constantin
(1978– 		19 June 2015 April 2017 1 year, 9 months and 14 days
2 Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
(1952– 		April 2017 19 October 2020 3 years, 6 months and 17 days
3 Daniel Olteanu 19 October 2020 22 March 2022 1 year, 5 months and 3 days

Electoral history

Legislative elections
Election Chamber Senate Position Aftermath
Votes % Seats Votes % Seats
2012 did not exist1
25 / 412
 did not exist
6 / 176
 — PSD-UNPR-ALDE government (2014–2015)
Opposition to the technocratic Cioloș Cabinet (2015–2017)
2016 396,386 5.62
20 / 329
 423,728 6.01
9 / 136
  5th  PSD-ALDE government (2017–2019)
Opposition to PSD minority government (2019)
Supporting PNL minority government (2019–2020)
Opposition to PNL minority government (2020)
2020 did not compete2 Extra-parliamentary opposition to PNL-USR PLUS-UDMR government (2020–2021)
Extra-parliamentary opposition to PNL-UDMR minority government (2021)
Extra-parliamentary support to CNR government (2021–2022)

Notes:
1 The MPs were previously elected on PC and PNL lists.
2 Members of ALDE ran on PRO Romania list.

National results
Election County Councilors (CJ) Mayors Local Councilors (CL) Popular vote  % Position
Votes % Seats Votes % Seats Votes % Seats
2016 411,823 4.98
95 / 1,434
 315,236 3.69
195 / 3,186
 390,321 4.66
2,284 / 40,067
 — —  3rd 
2020 209,411 2.91
15 / 1,340
 124,649 1.67
15 / 3,176
 189,665 2.58
861 / 39,900
 — —  7th 

Mayor of Bucharest
Election Candidate First round
Votes Percentage Position
2016 Daniel Barbu17,455
3.04%
 5th 
2020 Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu9,892
1.49%
 5th 

Presidential elections
Election Candidate First round Second round
Votes Percentage Position Votes Percentage Position
2019 Mircea Diaconu1815,201
8.85%
 4th not qualified

Notes:

1 Mircea Diaconu was the candidate of the "One Man" (Romanian: Un om) alliance; The alliance's members were PRO Romania and ALDE.

European elections
ElectionVotesPercentageMEPsPositionEU PartyEP Group
2019 372,760 4.11%
0 / 32
  7th  ALDE —

References
  1. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2020). "Romania". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  2. Plath, Jörg (2018). ""Unsere Utopie ist Normalität"". Deutschlandfunk. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  3. "Rumänien startet EU-Ratsvorsitz mit neuer Attacke gegen Justizsystem". Die Presse. 2019. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  4. Dąborowski, Tomasz (11 January 2017). "Prospects for the centre-left government in Romania". Centre for Eastern Studies. Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  5. "Romanian PM woos ethnic Hungarian party with posts". The Irish Times. 24 December 2004. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  6. Tidey, Alice (5 December 2018). "Romania's ruling coalition loses parliamentary majority: what it means". Euronews. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  7. "Romania". Europe Elects. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  8. Tenconi, Raffaella (14 February 2019). "Politics – Romania". ADA (Analyse. Debate. Act.). Archived from the original on 4 June 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  9. Redacția Aktual24 (22 March 2022). "PNL a inghitit oficial ALDE, cele doua partide au fuzionat. Rares Bogdan a fost in comisia PNL de negociere cu ALDE". Aktual24.ro (in Romanian).
  10. "New political party in Romania". romania-insider.com. 2015-06-22. Archived from the original on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
  11. "ALDE Party President welcomes establishment of new party in Romania". aldeparty.eu. 2015-06-19. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  12. "Liberalisok and ALDE Romania become ALDE Party member parties". aldeparty.eu. 2015-11-19. Archived from the original on 2017-02-22. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  13. "Romania's PSD and ALDE sign coalition protocol". romania-insider.com. 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  14. "ALDE România s-a retras din ALDE Europa" (in Romanian). 30 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  15. "Guy Verhofstadt cere excluderea partidului lui Tăriceanu din Alianța Liberal-Democraților Europeni" (in Romanian). 25 April 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  16. "Guy Verhofstadt: Vom crea o nouă mişcare în Europa care va fi surpriza acestor alegeri" (in Romanian). 25 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  17. "Romania's Ruling PSD Party Loses Majority After Ally Quits". Voice of America. 26 August 2019. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  18. Liberă, Europa (8 October 2020). "ALDE & Pro România fuzionează și formează Pro România Social Liberal". Europa Liberă România (in Romanian). Retrieved 2020-10-08.
  19. Pecheanu, Gabriel (2021-01-26). "Pro România a convocat un congres extraordinar pentru întreruperea demersurilor de fuziune cu ALDE". Mediafax (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 2021-01-26. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  20. Redacția Aktual24 (22 March 2022). "PNL a inghitit oficial ALDE, cele doua partide au fuzionat. Rares Bogdan a fost in comisia PNL de negociere cu ALDE". Aktual24.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 23 March 2022.
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