Conservative Party (Romania)

Conservative Party Partidul Conservator
President	Daniel Constantin
Founded	18 December 1991 (1991-12-18)
Headquarters	Calea Victoriei, 118 Bucharest
Ideology	Conservatism,[1], social conservatism
National affiliation	Social Liberal Union
European Parliament Group	S&D
Official colours	Light blue
Seats in the Senate	1 / 137
Seats in the Chamber	4 / 334
Seats in the European Parliament	1 / 33
Website
www.partidulconservator.ro

The Conservative Party of Romania (Romanian: Partidul Conservator, PC) is a political party formed in 1991, after the fall of Communism, under the name of the Romanian Humanist Party (Partidul Umanist Român, PUR). From 2005 until December 3, 2006,^[2] the party was a junior member of the ruling coalition. The party took its present name on 7 May 2005.

The current Conservative Party states it promotes tradition, family, social solidarity, European integration, and a nationalism without chauvinism. It claims the heritage of the former historical Romanian Conservative Party, one of the two main political forces in Romania before the First World War. There is no direct, uninterrupted link between the two parties — the historical Conservative Party was dissolved after World War I — but the current party sustains and embraces the values of the historical one.

In 2005, the party organized a march "for family values" as a reaction to the Bucharest GayFest pride parade. The party is opposed to the legalisation of same-sex marriage, even though Octavian Petrovici, the vice-president of the party's Bucharest division, stated that the party "respects the choice" of same-sex couples.^[3]

The party also supports the introduction of compulsory religious education in Romanian schools (currently, such classes are optional).^[4]

History

The Conservative Party was founded as the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR) on December 18, 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 and continues to be led by Dan Voiculescu, a businessman who formally gave control of his companies to relatives. Voiculescu is 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 licencing), he retains significant influence in the Romanian mass media, either through his foundation or through his family.^[5]

The party generally supports the interests of the Romanian middle class and especially those of small and middle-size business owners, and has performed better electorally at a local level than at a national level. The PUR formed a coalition with the PDSR (now the PSD), which won the 2000 elections. 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, no longer being able to represent its electorate, 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 after a disagreement with Voiculescu, saying that he found it impossible to cooperate with the "local barons" he had struggled to defeat.^[6]

In the parliamentary elections of November 2004 the PUR again formed an electoral alliance with the Social Democratic Party (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 DA (Justice and Truth), formed by the Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party. 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.

Although initial talks assured the support of PUR for the Justice and Truth, without them joining the government, the election of PSD members Adrian Năstase and Nicolae Văcăroiu as Heads of Chambers in the Romanian Parliament, prompted the members of DA to invite PUR to join the government. Although he had been the main advocate of this solution and had strongly pleaded for it, president Băsescu later qualified the solution as "immoral". In return, the conservatives labelled the President as a "hypocrite".^[7][8]

Voiculescu has admitted having been a collaborator with the Securitate, Romania's communist-era internal intelligence service, after information to this effect was released publicly by Romania's National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives. He has actively denied that his collaboration was harmful to any individual.^[9] He was initially named to be a Vice Premier in the government of Prime Minister of Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu but was ultimately not allowed to take the position because of his involvement with the former intelligence service.^[10][11]

On May 7, 2005 the party took its present name as the Conservative Party, after a change of doctrine from social liberalism to a more conservative stance. However, its doctrine is still unclear, since it supports certain leftist doctrines, such as increasing taxes for companies.

On 12 February 2006, the Romanian National Unity Party was absorbed into the Conservative Party.^[12]

On December 3, 2006, the party quit the governing coalition and went into opposition. It currently polls at less than three per cent in opinion polls, and is unlikely to enter parliament in 2008's general election unless it enters into another pact with either the PSD (considered unlikely) or the PNL.

On 17 April 2008, the Social Democratic Party and the Conservative Party announced they would form a political alliance for the 2008 local elections.^[13]

In the Romanian legislative election, 2008, the Conservative Party also took part in an alliance with Social Democrats, and won 1 seat in the Senate and 4 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.^[14] Before that, the Conservatives had proposed the Greater Romania Party (PRM) to form an alliance. The PRM leader emphatically rejected the offer, as it was presumed that PRM would be absorbed by the Conservative Party.^[15] Similarly, the party ran in the European Parliament election, 2009 (Romania) in a coalition with the Social Democrats, called National Union PSD+PC, and won 1 seat (George Sabin Cutaş).

On 5 February 2010, the PC formed the Social Liberal Union political alliance along with the Social Democratic Party and National Liberal Party.^[16][17]

Symbol

PC logo until January 2008

Notable members

• Dan Voiculescu - founder and former president
• Codruţ Şereş
• Gheorghe Copos

Notes

1. ^ http://www.parties-and-elections.de/romania.html
2. ^ (Romanian) Partidul Conservator s-a retras de la guvernare, party site, December 3, 2006. They left the coalition citing lack of support for their legislative projects by their coalition partners ("…lipsa sprijinului partenerilor de coaliţie pentru proiectele legislative ale PC").
3. ^ (Romanian) Familia Florin şi Raul nu primeşte credit cu buletinul, Cotidianul, June 6, 2006.
4. ^ (Romanian) Tinerii conservatori au format un lanţ uman pentru promovarea religiei în şcoli, Adevărul, February 24, 2008.
5. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "" Politică " Bacăul are primărie "liberală"". Evenimentul.ro. 2004-10-18. http://www.evenimentul.ro/local/article/94694,2,baseArticle.html. Retrieved 2011-01-06. 
7. ^ "9AM - cele mai importante stiri ale zilei". 9am.ro. 2010-11-24. http://www.9am.ro/revistapresei/Politica/2374/Basescu-cere-PURificarea-coalitiei-guvernamentale. Retrieved 2011-01-06. 
8. ^ http://www.adevarulonline.ro/arhiva/2005/Septembrie/1203/150923/
9. ^ Cold War specter lingers in Eastern Europe, International Herald Tribune, December 12, 2006.
10. ^ Secret service revelations claim senior coalition figures, The Diplomat - Bucharest, September 2006.
11. ^ (Romanian) Dan Voiculescu şi fosta Securitate, "Dan Voiculescu and the former Securitate", BBC News, June 16, 2006.
12. ^ (German) http://www.adz.ro/archiv/p060214.htm
13. ^ "Romania's PSD and PC form alliance". SETimes.com. 2008-04-17. http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/setimes/newsbriefs/2008/04/17/nb-04. Retrieved 2011-01-06. 
14. ^ "BEC: PC are 4 deputati si un senator, de pe urma aliantei cu PSD". Parlament2008.9am.ro. http://parlament2008.9am.ro/alegeri-parlament-2008/113286/BEC-PC-are-4-deputati-si-un-senator-de-pe-urma-aliantei-cu-PSD.html. Retrieved 2011-01-06. 
15. ^ http://adz.ro/p080807.htm (German)
16. ^ http://english.cri.cn/6966/2011/02/06/1461s619327.htm
17. ^ http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n241429

External links

• Conservative Party official site