Alliance of Liberals and Democrats Alianța Liberalilor și Democraților | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| Founder | Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu |
| Founded | 19 June 2015 |
| Dissolved | 22 March 2022 |
| Merger of | Liberal Reformist Party (PLR) andConservative Party (PC) |
| Merged into | National Liberal Party |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre[3][4] tocentre-right[5][6][7] |
| National affiliation | PSD–ALDE Alliance (2015–2019) |
| Regional affiliation | Liberal South East European Network |
| European affiliation | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (2015–2019) |
| International affiliation | Liberal International (Observer) |
| Colours | Blue Gold |
| Website | |
| alde.ro | |
TheAlliance of Liberals and Democrats (Romanian:Alianța Liberalilor și Democraților, ALDE) was a minorliberalpolitical party inRomania[1] which was officially absorbed in its entirety by theNational Liberal Party (PNL), from which it initially seceded in 2015, during late March 2022.[8] Throughout its relatively short political history, it was mostly associated with theSocial Democratic Party (PSD) at governance, firstly between 2014 and 2015 and the once more for the last time between 2017 and 2019.
The party was founded on 19 June 2015, following a merger of theLiberal Reformist Party (PLR) and theConservative Party (PC).[9][10] On 19 November 2015, the party was admitted into theAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.[11] At the2016 legislative election which was held on 11 December 2016, ALDE received 5.6% of the vote for theChamber of Deputies (consequently gaining 20 seats there) as well as 6.0% of the vote at theSenate (consequently gaining 6 seats there).
On 19 December 2016, party co-presidentsCălin Popescu-Tăriceanu andDaniel Constantin signed an collaboration protocol with theSocial Democratic Party (PSD) leaderLiviu Dragnea to form a new coalition government with ALDE as the junior partner.[12] On 30 May 2019, the party withdrew from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.[13] The relation between ALDE Romania and ALDE Europe was strained after the ALDE-supported governmental coalition had passed laws that were deemed by theVenice Commission and ALDE Europe to undermine the independence of the judiciary.[14] The leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe,Guy Verhofstadt, had also previously participated at a rally of the then oppositionalUSR PLUS.[15]
Eventually, ALDE Romania withdrew from their coalition with theSocial Democratic Party (PSD) on 26 August 2019 and moved into parliamentary opposition until the end of the legislature in 2020.[16] In 2020, ALDE merged withPRO Romania, forming a new political party under the monikerPRO Romania Social-Liberal (Romanian:PRO România Social-Liberal).[17]
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.[18] 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 governinggrand coalition which is theNational 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.[19]
| 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 |
| 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 thetechnocraticCioloș Cabinet (2015–2017) | ||||||||
| 2016 | 396,386 | 5.62 | 20 / 329 | 423,728 | 6.01 | 9 / 136 | 5th | PSD-ALDE government (2017–2019) |
| Opposition toPSD minority government (2019) | ||||||||
| SupportingPNL minority government (2019–2020) | ||||||||
| Opposition toPNL minority government (2020) | ||||||||
| 2020 | did not compete2 | Extra-parliamentary opposition toPNL-USR PLUS-UDMR government (2020–2021) | ||||||
| Extra-parliamentary opposition toPNL-UDMR minority government (2021) | ||||||||
| Extra-parliamentary support toCNR government (2021–2022) | ||||||||
Notes:
1 The MPs were previously elected onPC andPNL lists.
2 Members of ALDE ran onPRO Romania list.
| 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 |
| Election | Candidate | First round | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | Percentage | Position | ||
| 2016 | Daniel Barbu | 17,455 | 3.04% | 5th |
| 2020 | Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu | 9,892 | 1.49% | 5th |
| Election | Candidate | First round | Second round | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | Percentage | Position | Votes | Percentage | Position | ||
| 2019 | Mircea Diaconu1 | 815,201 | 8.85% | 4th | not qualified | ||
Notes:
1Mircea Diaconu was the candidate of the "One Man" (Romanian:Un om) alliance; The alliance's members werePRO Romania and ALDE.
| Election | Votes | Percentage | MEPs | Position | EU Party | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 372,760 | 4.11% | 0 / 32 | 7th | ALDE | — |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)