National Democratic Front (Romania)
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The People's Democratic Front (, FDP, ) was an
electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...
in Romania from 1944 to 1968, dominated by the
Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...
(PCR). It formed the government of Romania from 1946 to 1968, and from 1948 onward was effectively the only legal political organization in the country.


History

The alliance was created as the National Democratic Front (''Frontul Național Democrat, FND'') in October 1944, and was an alliance of the PCR, the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR), the
Ploughmen's Front The Ploughmen's Front () was a Romanian Left-wing politics, left-wing Agrarianism, agrarian-inspired political organisation of ploughmen, founded at Deva, Romania, Deva in 1933 and led by Petru Groza. At its peak in 1946, the Front had over 1 m ...
(FP) and other Communist-affiliated organisations. In the fraudulent 1946 elections the front formed the core of the Bloc of Democratic Parties, which officially won 69.8 percent of the vote and 347 of the 414 seats in Parliament, "confirming" the government of pro-Communist
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Petru Groza Petru Groza (7 December 1884 – 7 January 1958) was a Romanian politician, best known as the first Prime Minister of Romania, Prime Minister of the Romanian Communist Party, Communist Party-dominated government under Soviet Union, Soviet Sovie ...
in power. After the collapse of Communism, some authors argued that the opposition National Peasants' Party (PNȚ) would have won a comprehensive victory had the Groza government allowed an honest election. Indeed, the opposition long claimed it would have won as much as 80 percent of the vote had the election been conducted fairly. Later, historian Petre Ţurlea reviewed a confidential Communist Party report about the election that showed the Bloc of Democratic Parties had actually won at most 48 percent of the vote. He concluded that the PNȚ and the opposition parties likely came up well short of the landslide they had long claimed, but they would have still won enough votes between them in an honest election to form a coalition government. The Communists seized full power in December 1947, when they pushed King Michael to abdicate and used their legislative supermajority to abolish the monarchy and declare Romania a "people's republic". In early 1948, the Social Democrats merged with the Communists to form the Romanian Workers' Party (PMR). At a PMR congress held in February 1948, the FND was converted into the FDP. It quickly took on a character similar to other " national fronts" in the Soviet bloc. The member parties became completely subservient to the PMR and were required to accept the PMR's " leading role" as a condition of their continued existence. However, Groza, the leader of one of those minor parties, the Ploughmen's Front, remained prime minister until 1952, five years after the onset of Communist rule, when he handed the post to PMR leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. In the March 1948 elections, the Front, and through it, the PMR consolidated its grip on the country. The Front won 93.2 percent of the vote and all but nine seats in the legislature, with only rump liberal and peasant parties as opposition.
Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...
& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', pp1604–1610
Within the Front, the PMR and its allies won 201 seats (190 for the PMR and 11 for its affiliates), just short of a majority in its own right.Cristian Preda - "Rumânii fericiţi" This proved to be the last time that opposition parties were allowed to take part in an election during the Communist era, though Romania had effectively been a one-party state since Michael's abdication. In the elections of
1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...
,
1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...
, 1961 and
1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...
, voters were presented with a single list of FDP candidates. While voters could reject the list or spoil their ballots, few did so; official figures gave the FDP 99 percent or more of the vote on each occasion. In 1968, the FDP was replaced by the Front of Socialist Unity.


Election results


See also

* Front of Socialist Unity and Democracy


References

{{Authority control Political parties established in 1944 1944 establishments in Romania Political parties disestablished in 1968 1968 disestablishments in Romania Romanian Communist Party Defunct political party alliances in Romania Popular fronts of communist states Political parties in the Kingdom of Romania