page_title: Ion Iliescu
section_title: Presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Ion Iliescu / Presidency
caption_attribution_description: English: George W. Bush and the President of Romania Ion Iliescu.
context_page_description: Ion Iliescu is a Romanian politician who served as President of Romania from 1989 to 1996 and from 2000 until his retirement in 2004. Iliescu was a senator for the Social Democratic Party, of which he is the founder and honorary president.
  He joined the Communist Party in 1953 and became a member of its Central Committee in 1965. However, beginning with 1971, he was gradually marginalized by Nicolae Ceaușescu. He had a leading role in the Romanian Revolution, becoming the country's president in December 1989. In May 1990, he became Romania's first freely elected head of state. After a new constitution was approved by popular referendum, he served a further two terms as president, from 1992 to 1996, and from 2000 to 2004, separated by the presidency of Emil Constantinescu, who defeated him in 1996.
  Iliescu is widely recognized as a predominant figure in the first fifteen years of post-revolution politics. During his presidency, Romania joined NATO.
context_section_description: The National Salvation Front decided to organize itself as a party and run in the 1990 general election—the first free election held in the country in 53 years–with Illiescu as its presidential candidate. The FSN won a sweeping victory, taking strong majorities in both chambers. In the separate presidential election, Iliescu won handily, taking 85 percent of the vote, still the largest vote share for a free presidential election. He thus became Romania's first democratically elected head of state, and the first since 1947 who was not a Communist or fellow traveler. To date, it is the only time since the end of Communism that a president has been elected in a single round.
  Iliescu and his supporters split from the Front and created the Democratic National Salvation Front (NSDF), which later evolved into the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR), then the Social Democratic Party (PSD) (see Social Democratic Party of Romania). Progressively, the Front lost its character as a national government or generic coalition, and became vulnerable to criticism for using its appeal as the first institution involved in power sharing, while engaging itself in political battles with forces that could not enjoy this status, nor the credibility.
  Under the pressure of the events that led to the Mineriads, his political stance has veered with time: from a proponent of Perestroika, Iliescu recast himself as a Western European social democrat. The main debate around the subject of his commitment to such ideals is linked to the special conditions in Romania, and especially to the strong nationalist and autarkic attitude visible within the Ceaușescu regime. Critics have pointed out that, unlike most communist-to-social democrat changes in the Eastern bloc, Romania's tended to retain various cornerstones.
  Romania adopted its first post-Communist Constitution in 1991. In 1992, Iliescu won a second term when he received 61% of the vote in the second round. He immediately suspended his NSDF membership; the Constitution does not allow the president to be a formal member of a political party during his term. He ran for a third time in 1996 but, stripped of media monopoly, he lost in the second round to Emil Constantinescu, his second-round opponent in 1992. Over 1,000,000 votes were cancelled, leading to accusations of widespread fraud. Nevertheless, Iliescu conceded defeat within hours of polls closing, making him the only incumbent president to lose a bid for re-election since the end of Communism.
  In the 2000 presidential election Iliescu ran again and won in the run-off against the ultra-nationalist Corneliu Vadim Tudor. He began his third term on 20 December of that year, ending on 20 December 2004. The center-right was severely defeated during the 2000 elections due largely to public dissatisfaction with the harsh economic reforms of the previous four years as well as the political instability and infighting of the multiparty coalition. Tudor's extreme views also ensured that most urban voters either abstained or chose Iliescu.
  In the PSD elections of 21 April 2005, Iliescu lost the Party presidency to Mircea Geoană, but was elected as honorary president of the party in 2006, a position without official executive authority in the party.
caption: Iliescu and U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002
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