The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats ( ro, Alianța Liberalilor și Democraților, ALDE) was a minor liberal

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in Romania which was officially absorbed in its entirety by the National Liberal Party (PNL) during late March 2022.

History

The party was founded on 19 June 2015, following a merger of the Liberal Reformist Party (PLR) and the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

(PC). On 19 November 2015, the party was admitted into the

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE; french: Alliance des Démocrates et des Libéraux pour l'Europe, ADLE) is a transnational alliance between two European political parties, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europ ...

. At the 2016 legislative election which was held on 11 December 2016, ALDE received 5.6% of the vote for the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

(consequently gaining 20 seats there) as well as 6.0% of the vote at the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

(consequently gaining 6 seats there). On 19 December 2016, party co-presidents

Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu (; born 14 January 1952) is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 29 December 2004 to 22 December 2008. He was also president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the vice-pr ...

and Daniel Constantin signed an collaboration protocol with the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea to form a new coalition government with ALDE as the junior partner. On 30 May 2019 the party withdrew from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. The relation between ALDE Romania and ALDE Europe was strained after the ALDE-supported governmental coalition had passed laws that were deemed by the

Venice Commission The Venice Commission, officially European Commission for Democracy through Law, is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin ...

and ALDE Europe to undermine the independence of the judiciary. The leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe,

Guy Verhofstadt Guy Maurice Marie Louise Verhofstadt (; ; born 11 April 1953) is a Belgian politician who was the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe from 2009 to 2019, and has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Belgium ...

, had also previously participated at a rally of the then oppositional

USR PLUS USR PLUS was a Romanian progressive, liberal, and centrist political alliance active between 2019 and 2021. Established on 2 February 2019 solely as an electoral alliance between the political parties Save Romania Union (USR) and the Freedom ...

. Eventually, ALDE Romania withdrew from their coalition with the

(PSD) on 26 August 2019 and moved into parliamentary opposition until the end of the legislature in 2020. In 2020, ALDE merged with

PRO Romania PRO Romania (, PRO) is a minor extra-parliamentary social liberal political party in Romania. History The founding of PRO Romania was initiated in 2017 by former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, former acting/ad interim Prime Minister and Minist ...

, forming a new political party under the moniker ''PRO Romania Social-Liberal'' (). 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. 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 governing

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are ...

which is the National 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.

Leadership

) alliance; The alliance's members were

and ALDE.

European elections

References

External links

Official website
{{Romanian political parties 2015 establishments in Romania 2020 disestablishments in Romania Centrist parties in Romania Conservative liberal parties Defunct political parties in Romania Eurosceptic parties in Romania Liberal parties in Romania Political parties established in 2015 Political parties disestablished in 2022 Registered political parties in Romania Social liberal parties