Romania’s centre right Democrat-Liberals won parliamentary elections

The official results from Romania’s elections have given the centre-right Democrat Liberal (PD-L) party a thin margin lead over their Social Democrat (PSD) rivals, overturning exit polls that had forecast a resounding win for the Left, last Sunday.

As expected PD-L, PSD+PC, the national Liberal Party (PNL), and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) will be part of the future Parliament, as being the only parties that beat the electoral 5 percent threshold.

The Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) has announced that, according to the data centralized from all of the voting centers, the Democrat-Liberals (PD-L) won 115 seats in the Lower Chamber, while the PSD+PC alliance received 114 seats, the National Liberals (PNL) won 65 seats and UDMR 22 seats.

In the Senate, PD-L managed to get 51 seats, with PSD+PC coming second with 49 seats. PNL won 28 senators, while UDMR has but 9 seats.

The initiative now passes to Traian Basescu, the president, who must invite a party to form a government. Alina Mungiu, director of the Romanian Academic Society, a think-tank, said: “It’s always been more likely that the Democrat Liberals will form a government, because the president prefers them.” Mr Basescu was a senior figure in the Democrat Liberals’ predecessor party before ascending to the presidency four years ago.

With no party likely to achieve an overall majority, a coalition government is a certainty. The National Liberals, who came third, are regarded as potential coalition partners for either of the two leading parties. Until two years ago, they governed in coalition with the PD-L, and have subsequently run a minority government with ad hoc support from the PSD.

”The PD-L will first try for a coalition with the Liberals, but if their price is too high, then a grand coalition with the PSD is a possibility,” Ms Mungiu said.

Sebastian Lazaroiu: We will rather have a 2-year Government instead of a 4-year one

Presidential adviser Sebastian Lazaroiu stated that it is possible for early elections to be held two years after the start of the new Government’s term, arguing that in the first two years the parties will close ranks in order to overcome the crisis, with their competition set to restart after that period.

‘We might have a two-year Government instead of a four-year one. But it is hard to anticipate at this time,’ the Presidential advisor answered when asked if the new Government will resist throughout its current term, set to expire in 2012, or if he foresees early elections.

All parties have promised a combination of public-sector pay rises tax cuts and infrastructural spending as a means of economic stimulus. But with growth set to plummet to as low as 3 to 4.5 per cent next year from its current level of 7.5 per cent, and the budget deficit forecast to widen from this year’s level of 2.4 per cent over the next two years, the next government will have little leeway on spending. Already, analysts are warning that Romania may have to follow its neighbours Hungary and Ukraine in turning to the International Monetary Fund for help financing its $75bn external debt.

December the 1st: The 90-th anniversary of the Great Union of 1918, the National Day of Romania

The popular assembly of Alba Iulia on Dec. 1, 1918 (archive photo)

On December the 1st, 1918, at Alba Iulia, in the e center of Transylvania, the Great National Assembly (Marea Adunare Nationala) approved the unification of Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures with Kingdom of Romania.

The first of December 1918 represents, for the Romanian people, the triumph of centuries of struggle and sacrifices for achieving the national unitary state. This historical process, taking place on the entire Romanian area, scored significant developments in the 1784's popular revolts, 1821 and 1848's revolutions, the unification of Moldova with Wallachia (Muntenia) in 1859, the Proclamation of Independence after the 1877-78 anti-Ottoman war and was completed with the expression of the self-determination's will, in Chisinau, Cernautzi and Alba Iulia, during the year 1918, of the Romanians living under foreign domination.

Living in separate States, always threatened by the powerful neighbors, with parts of its original territory - Transylvania, Bessarabia, Bucovina, sometimes Dobrogea too - annexed to the three big empires - Ottoman, Habsburgic (later, known as Austro-Hungarian) and Russian, the Romanians always preserved the philosophy of being part of the same nation.

This philosophy of the Romanian nation unity was permanently strengthened by political, military, economic and cultural relationships between the Romanian Kingdoms along the centuries. The 19th century, called the "century of the nationalities", brought a new reality in the Romanians-living space, the consolidation of the Romanian nation, based on unity, consciousness and a common destiny.

The accomplishment of the national aspirations of all Romanians at the end of the First World War (WWI) should be understood as a natural and logical fulfillment of an historical necessity imposed by the evolution of the national state, and not as a result of the Romanian military effort. The WWI did not create the Great Romania, but the will of the Romanian nation did so.

The military victory was not the basis of the national Romanian state, even though the unification of the Romanian provinces was the only reason behind the Kingdom of Romania's entering WWI. The huge human and material sacrifices in the military campaigns in 1916-1918 were rewarded with the collapse of the irrational empires and the affirmation of the right of peoples to self-determination, based on the Woodrow Wilson's principle of nationalities.

The Romanian troops entered Bessarabia at the beginning of 1918 not to install a military dictatorship, but to re-establish order and peace and to hinder the Bolshevik actions aiming at imposing the Soviet power in the province.

The Romanian military had the same role in Bucovina, at the request of the Romanian National Council (the parliament), taking into consideration the disorder created by the retreat of the Austrian military units and the plan of the Ukrainian National Council to annex the Northern Bucovina to Ukraine. The Romanian military intervention came only after the Constituent Assembly of Bucovina decided, in October 14/27, 1918 "the unification of the entire Bucovina with the other three Romanian provinces in one national and independent state".

On 1st of December, 1918, at Alba Iulia, in the e center of Transylvania, the Great National Assembly (Marea Adunare Nationala) approved the unification of Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures with Kingdom of Romania. The large impressing popular gathering represented the crowning of the previous self-determination acts of unification from Chisinau (March 27/April 9, 1918) and Cernautzi (November 15/28, 1918) stipulating the return of Bessarabia and Bucovina to Romania, respectively.

At the time of the Paris Peace Conference, the Romanian unitary State had been already a reality: The Conference had only to endorse the legitimate decisions taken in Chisinau, Cernautzi and Alba Iulia successively, in 1918. The Versailles and Trianon Treaties represented a political and diplomatic acknowledgement of an inalienable historical right of the Romanian nation.