This article gives an overview of liberalism and radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it is not necessary for a party to have actually labeled itself as a liberal party.
Liberalism has been one of the major political forces in Romania since the Wallachian Revolution of 1848, which was later mainly organized in the centre-right historical National Liberal Party (PNL), especially at governmental level.
As of July 2022, the contemporary National Liberal Party (PNL) is the head of the Romanian government with its incumbent Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciucă, with elected members in both houses of the Romanian Parliament (more specifically 80 in the Chamber of Deputies and 37 in the Senate) as well as in the European Parliament (where it is the largest Romanian party, having 10 MEPs out of 33 allocated for Romania). At European Parliament level, the PNL is a member party of European People's Party (EPP) and thereby part of the European People's Party Group (EPP Group).
The National Liberal Party (PNL) has historically had many spin-offs (or breakaway factions) and mergers alike with other centre-right parties (many of which were former breakaway factions returning to the main party). For example, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) was such a notable relatively recent spin-off/breakaway faction. Furthermore, the Romanian ALDE was a junior partner in a coalition government along the Social Democratic Party (PSD) between 2017 and 2019, before merging again in the PNL in early 2022.
Nº | Name | Term start | Term end |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Ion Brătianu | 1875 | 1891 |
2 | Dumitru Brătianu | 1891 | 1892 |
3 | Dimitrie Sturdza | 1892 | 1908 |
4 | Ion I. C. Brătianu | 1908 | 24 November 1927 |
5 | Vintilă Brătianu | November/December 1927 | 1930 |
6 | Ion Duca | 1930 | 30 December 1933 |
7 | Dinu Brătianu | December 1933 | 1948 |
none (party dissolved/banned during Romanian Communist Party rule) | 1948 | 1989 | |
8 | Radu Câmpeanu | January 1990 | February 1993 |
9 | Mircea Ionescu-Quintus | February 1993 | February 2001 |
10 | Valeriu Stoica | February 2001 | August 2002 |
11 | Theodor Stolojan | August 2002 | October 2004 |
12 | Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu | October 2004 | March 2009 |
13 | Crin Antonescu | March 2009 | June 2014 |
14 | Klaus Iohannis | June 2014 | December 2014 |
15 | Vasile Blaga | December 2014 | September 2016 |
16 | Alina Gorghiu | December 2014 | December 2016 |
– | Raluca Turcan (acting/ad interim) | December 2016 | June 2017 |
17 | Ludovic Orban | June 2017 | September 2021 |
18 | Florin Cîțu | September 2021 | April 2022 |
– | Gheorghe Flutur (acting/ad interim) | April 2022 | April 2022 |
19 | Nicolae Ciucă | April 2022 | Incumbent |