President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania.  The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term (since 2004, after the Constitution was modified in 2003). He or she can serve two terms. During his term in office, the President must not be a member of any political party. The current president is Nicușor Dan and he is serving since 26 May 2025.

History
In 1947, the Romanian People's Republic was founded after the Kingdom of Romania was dissolved. Although Constantin Ion Parhon was made chairman, the government was ran by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, head of the Romanian Communist Party. After Dej's death in 1965, he was replaced by Nicolae Ceaușescu, who declared himself president in 1974. Ceaușescu kept his people under a totalitarian, stalinist dictatorship (similarly to Kim Il-Sung's North Korea),  and, after a revolution in December 1989, Ceaușescu was executed on the 25th of December, 1989. He was replaced by Ion Iliescu, who made democratic reforms and founded Romania in its current form. The 1990 and 1991 Mineriads gave Iliescu a negative reputation, and rumors of the 1990 Elections being faked isolated Romania. Following the 1996 Elections, Emil Constantinescu (CDR) became president, whose mandate was marked by Inflation. In the 2000 Elections, far-right candidate Corneliu Vadim Tudor (PRM) won second place, but former president Ion Iliescu (PSD) was reelected. In the 2004 Elections, Traian Băsescu (PDL) barely edged out then prime-minister Adrian Năstase (PSD), a scenario which would happen agian 5 years later with PSD candidate Mircea Geoană. In 2007, Romania joined the European Union. Great turmoil started in Romania in 2012, following a refferendum to impeach Traian Băsescu, but ended in 2015, during the first mandate of president Klaus Iohannis (PNL), after the resignation of prime-minister Victor Ponta.

 List 

Key regarding the political parties of affiliation

 (PCR)
 (FSN)
 (PSD)
 (PNȚCD)
 (PDL)
 (PNL)

 Socialist Republic of Romania (1965–1989) 

  PortraitName(Birth–Death)Elected Term of office Political Party Ref.Took officeLeft officeTime in office 180pxNicolae Ceaușescu(1918–1989)1974
1980

1985 28 March 1974 22 December 1989 15 years,
249 daysRomanian Communist Party (PCR)Grosescu, R. (2004). The Political Regrouping of Romanian Nomenklatura during the 1989 Revolution. Romanian Journal of Society and Politics, 4(1), 97-123.Despite his country's membership in the Warsaw Pact, Ceaușescu recognised the state of Israel, supported Romanian nationalism, and denounced the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. With his 1971 July Theses speech, Ceaușescu launched a quasi-Maoist and Neo-Stalinist cultural reform. He and his wife, Elena Ceaușescu were deposed during the 1989 Romanian Revolution and were both executed three days later.

 Romania (1989–present) 

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center
|-
! rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" | Portrait
! rowspan="2" |Name(Birth–Death)
! rowspan="2" |Elected
! colspan="3" width="30%" |Term of office
! rowspan="2" width="35%" |Political Party
! rowspan="2" | Ref.
|-
!Took office
!Left office
!Time in office
|-bgcolor="#EEEEEE"
! bgcolor="#EEEEEE" rowspan="2" style="background:; color:white" | —
| bgcolor="#EEEEEE" rowspan="4" |80px
| bgcolor="#EEEEEE" rowspan="4" |Ion Iliescu(1930–2025)
| rowspan="2" |1990
| 26 December 1989
| 20 June 1990
|176 days
|National Salvation Front (FSN)
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| colspan="4" |A former Romanian Communist Party (PCR) high-ranking member and subsequent relative dissident, Iliescu was one of the main founders of the National Salvation Front (FSN) during the 1989 Revolution. As a member of the FSN triumvirate, Iliescu served as the acting head of state of Romania for almost six months during the beginning of its slow transition to free market capitalism.
|-bgcolor="#EEEEEE"
! rowspan="2" style="background:; color:white" | 2
| rowspan="2" |1990 1992
| 20 June 1990
| 29 November 1996
|6 years,

161 days
|National Salvation Front (FSN)
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| colspan="4" | <small>The first Romanian president to have been freely and democratically elected, Ion Iliescu was an independent social democrat in geopolitical regards. He subsequently earned a negative reputation after his handling of the ''Mineriads miner interventions in Bucharest. Under his first term, the current Constitution of Romania was introduced.</small>
|- bgcolor=#EEEEEE
! rowspan="2" style="background:; color:white" | 3
| rowspan="2" | 111x111px
| rowspan="2" |Emil Constantinescu(born 1939)
| rowspan="2" |1996
| 29 November 1996
| 20 December 2000
|4 years,
21 days
|Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD)1
| rowspan="2" | 
|-
| colspan="4" style="font-size:85%;"|Constantinescu was the successful candidate of the right-leaning Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR) which won the 1996 general elections, consequently paving the way for the first peaceful transfer of power in post-1989 Romania. During his term as president, Constantinescu struggled with the slow implementation of the modernization and privatization process which was bogged down by excessive bureaucracy.

Nonetheless, the CDR coalition managed to secure three prime ministers who initiated liberalizing economic reforms under Constantinescu's presidency, although the overall progress was meagre.
|- bgcolor="#EEEEEE"
! rowspan="2" style="background:; color:white" | (2)
| rowspan="2" |80px
| rowspan="2" |Ion Iliescu(1930–2025)
| rowspan="2" |2000
| 20 December 2000
| 20 December 2004
|4 years
|Social Democratic Party (PSD)
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| colspan="4" |Iliescu was elected to his third non-consecutive term in 2000. In March 2004, at the end of his last term, Romania joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as part of the second largest wave of expansion in Central and Eastern Europe.
|- bgcolor="#EEEEEE"
! rowspan="2" style="background:; color:white" | 5
| rowspan="2" |117x117px
| rowspan="2" |Traian Băsescu(born 1951)
| rowspan="2" |2004 2009
| 20 December 2004
| 21 December 2014
|10 years,
1 day
|Democratic Liberal Party (PDL)2
| rowspan="2" | 
|-
| colspan="4" style="font-size:85%;" | Elected with the support of the right-leaning Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), Băsescu won the presidency in 2004 on a platform targeting widespread political corruption. During his first term, Romania joined in the European Union (EU). In spite of the harsh opposition of the left-leaning parties (especially the PSD and the PRM), he publicly condemned the former communist regime.

His second term was marked by a landslide victory of the opposition coalition, specifically the Social Liberal Union (USL), in both the local and the legislative elections of 2012, amidst heavy losses for the presidential party (i.e. the Democratic Liberal Party).

Internationally, Băsescu aligned Romania closer to the United States, the European Union (EU), and NATO, maintaining a pro-Western foreign policy throughout both his terms. He was suspended twice, namely in 2007 and 2012. Both impeachment referendums were invalidated by the Constitutional Court on the grounds of low turnout, thus paving his way for a comeback to presidency.

|- bgcolor="#EEEEEE"
! rowspan=2 style="background:; color:black" | 6
|rowspan=2|108x108px
|rowspan=2|Klaus Iohannis(born 1959)
|rowspan=2|2014 2019
| 21 December 2014
| 12 February 2025
|
|National Liberal Party (PNL)
|rowspan=2|
|-
| colspan="4"| 

|- bgcolor="#EEEEEE"
| rowspan="2" style="background:; " | 7|rowspan="2" | 108x108px
|rowspan="2" |Nicușor Dan(born 1969)
|rowspan="2" |2025
|26 May 2025
|Incumbent
|
|Independent (Independent)
|rowspan=2|
|-
| colspan="4"|
|-
|}Notes''':

1 Emil Constantinescu was the candidate of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD) whose candidacy was supported as part of the larger right-leaning Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR) in both 1992 and 1996;

2 Traian Băsescu was the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party (PD) whose candidacy was supported as part of the larger right-leaning Justice and Truth Alliance (DA) in 2004, alongside the National Liberal Party. In 2009, his re-election was supported only by the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) along with a certain faction of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD).

 Acting presidents (2007; 2012; 2025) 

 Nº PortraitName(Birth–Death)Term of officePolitical PartyTook officeLeft officeTime in office —80pxNicolae Văcăroiu(born 1943) 20 April 2007 23 May 200733 daysSocial Democratic Party (PSD)Văcăroiu, the president of the Senate, served as interim president following Băsescu's first impeachment. —80pxCrin Antonescu(born 1959) 10 July 2012 27 August 201248 daysNational Liberal Party (PNL)Antonescu, the president of the Senate, served as interim president following Băsescu's second impeachment. —80pxIlie Bolojan(born 1969) 12 February 2025 26 May 2025 103 daysNational Liberal Party (PNL)Bolojan, the president of the Senate, has been serving as interim president following Iohannis' resignation ahead of his impeachment.

Notes

References


Romania, Presidents