Senate of Romania

Infobox Legislature
name = "Senatul"
The Senate
coa_pic = Senat.jpg
coa-pic =
session_room = plen_senat.jpg
house_type = Upper house
houses = Senatul
leader1_type = President
leader1 = Nicolae Văcăroiu
party1 =
PSD
election1 = 2004
leader2_type =
leader2 =
party2 =
election2 =
members = 137
p_groups = Social Democratic Party: 42
National Liberal Party: 25
Democratic Party: 21
Greater Romania Party: 16
Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania: 10
Conservative Party: 11
Independents: 11
election3 = 2004
meeting_place = Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest
website = [http://www.senat.ro/ www.senat.ro] The Senate of Romania (romanian: "Senat") is the upper house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 137 seats (as of November 28, 2004), to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using proportional representation in 42 electoral districts (the 41 counties plus the city of Bucharest), to serve four-year terms.

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the Senate was housed in "Palatul Senatului", located in Revolution Square. That U-shaped structure was built from 1938 to 1941 under engineer Emil Prager's coordination, following the plans of architect Emil Nădejde. It housed the Council of Ministers and from 1958 to 1989 it was the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. During the Revolution, Romanian President Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena fled by helicopter from the roof of the building. In 2005 Senators moved into the Palace of the Parliament, joining their colleagues from the Chamber of Deputies. "Palatul Senatului" now houses offices of the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform.

Composition

2004 elections

In the Romanian legislative election, 2004, held on November 28, 2004, the Justice and Truth Alliance won the greatest number of seats, even though no party won an outright majority. The current President of the Senate of Romania is Nicolae Văcăroiu, who was elected on December 20, 2004. Following his "ad interim" presidency of Romania, he delegated his attributions to the vicepresident Doru Ioan Tărăcilă.

Until April 2007, the Justice and Truth Alliance governed in coalition with other minor parties. In April 2007, after the break-up of the Justice and Truth Alliance, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Hungarians formed a minority government coalition (highlighted in bold in the table below).

References

External links

* [http://www.senat.ro Official web site of the Senate of Romania]