History, Recent Developments

In December 1991 a new democratic constitution was adopted by popular referendum. Presidential and legislative elections were held in September 1992 with a runoff presidential contest in October. Iliescu was reelected president, while the Democratic National Salvation Front (DNSF), a party that emerged from the breakup of the NSF, won the largest representation in the legislature and formed a coalition government. Iliescu appointed economist Nicolae Vacaroiu to head the government as prime minister. In 1993 the DNSF merged with several smaller parties and changed its name to the Party of Social Democracy of Romania (PSDR). During 1994 nationalist parties gained increasing influence in the Romanian government.

Romania experienced significant ethnic turmoil in the early 1990s. Attacks against Roma (Gypsies) in 1991 resulted in an exodus of Roma to Germany. However, in September 1992 the German government returned 43,000 refugees to Romania, more than half of them Roma. Relations with Hungary were strained as a result of clashes between ethnic Hungarians and Romanian nationalists in Transylvania. In 1993 the Romanian government expanded the educational and linguistic rights of ethnic Germans and Hungarians within its borders. In 1994 Romania hosted an international conference on the status of ethnic minorities in Central Europe. However, disagreements over the rights of ethnic minorities in Romania continued to be a problem. In June 1995 the Romanian parliament enacted a law that denied ethnic minorities the right to higher education in their native language in many subjects. Thousands of ethnic Hungarians protested against the legislation. In September 1996 the leaders of Romania and Hungary signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation that guaranteed the rights of ethnic minority groups.

In the 1990s Romania’s foreign affairs were focused primarily on relations with Western Europe. Romania became an associate member of the European Union in 1993 and formally applied for full membership in 1995. Romania also joined the Partnership for Peace program of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1994 and is currently seeking full NATO membership.

Presidential and legislative elections held in November 1996 marked Romania’s first peaceful transfer of power. The ruling coalition headed by the PSDR lost its majority in parliament to opposition parties. The Democratic Convention of Romania (DCR), a coalition of six opposition parties, joined with another opposition grouping, the Social Democratic Union (SDU), in a governing coalition, forming Romania’s first staunchly anti-Communist majority in the legislature. The DCR’s presidential candidate, reform-minded academic Emil Constantinescu, defeated Iliescu in the runoff presidential elections held November 17. Constantinescu named a popular DCR politician, Bucharest mayor Victor Ciorbea, as the new prime minister.

The new government pledged to implement a comprehensive plan of economic reform in an attempt to counter Romania’s seven years of lackluster progress toward a free-market economy. Also during this time, the government pursued a highly publicized and rigorous campaign against crime and corruption. Constantinescu symbolically broke with former policy by lifting a ban on visits into the country by Romania’s former monarch, King Michael, who was deposed during the Communist takeover.

In 1997 Romania’s diplomatic relations with its neighbors improved dramatically. Efforts to reconcile centuries of distrust with Hungary brought an unprecedented visit to Romania by a Hungarian head of state, President Arpad Goncz, in late May. In early June the presidents of Ukraine and Romania signed a friendship treaty that ended a decades-old territorial dispute over a fuel-rich island located near the coasts of both countries in the Black Sea.

However, for all of its success internationally, Ciorbea’s government struggled domestically to continue the process of economic reform. In 1997 inflation soared, state-owned companies and utilities with bloated payrolls were not streamlined, and a promised sale of the state banks never occurred. The SDU defected from Ciorbea’s coalition in parliament in January 1998, and in March Ciorbea was forced to resign. Radu Vasile, from the DCR, was appointed in April to succeed him, and the SDU rejoined the ruling coalition. Upon taking office, Vasile promised to move ahead with privatization. Vasile’s government planned to close more than 150 unprofitable factories and mines. In January 1999 about 10,000 striking coal miners marched on Bucharest to protest mine closures and to demand a major wage increase. The miners marched for five days until they dispersed after the government deployed army and special police forces. Vasile also agreed to substantially increase wages and reopen some mines. Vasile’s government collapsed in December 1999 when several cabinet ministers withdrew their support for him and resigned. Constantinescu then dismissed Vasile, but Vasile refused to go, claiming the president’s action was illegal. However, intense political pressure led Vasile to resign, and Constantinescu named National Bank governor Mugur Isarescu to succeed him.

In parliamentary elections in November 2000 the PSDR won the greatest number of seats (but not a majority). In presidential elections in the same month Iliescu finished first, with 37 percent of the vote, and Corneliu Vadim Tudor, leader of the far-right Greater Romania Party, came in second. Iliescu won the runoff election in December, garnering 67 percent of the votes cast. The PSDR decided to form a minority government, rather than trying to put together a coalition cabinet. Adrian Nastase, first vice president of the PSDR, was named prime minister.