The first months of freedom were for the Romanians a period of enthusiasm and euphoria, of identity between official discourse and the options of the man in the street. The declared aims were a return to a democracy based on the multiparty system and to a free market economy and Romania's reintegration into the European political and cultural space from which it had been kept off for decades on end by the Iron Curtain. But problems soon appeared in every area.

Pluralism was accompanied by a break-up of the political forces, the first parlamentary and presidential elections (May 1990 and September 1992) were free but they were held in a climate of tension, the social and ethnic solidarity that manifested itself during the December 1989 Revolution was later marred by conflicts and violence (January 28-29, February 18, June 13-15 1990, the Romanian-Hungarian interethnic clashes of March 19-20, 1990 in Târgu Mures, etc.). Concurrently with the affirmation of a European vocation, the mental robotisation which had taken place during the communist period generated mentalities and intolereance which, added to the questions related to the events of December 1989, marred Romnania's image in the international mass media. Not even a symbolical "trial" of Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorial regime took place. From a political, institutional and cultural point of view, decisive steps were however taken towards a break with the totalitarian past. The Parliament elected in May 1990 adopted a new Constitution on November 21, 1991 (which was validated through a referendum on December 8, 1991), and the freedom of the press is undeniable and uncontested. FSN won the parliamentarv elections of 1990 and PDSR (resulted from the split of FSN, in the spring of 1992) won the 1992 elections. The local, parliamentary and presidential elections of November 1996 were won by the then Opposition (the Romanian Democratic Convention-CDR, an alliance of anticommunist parties and civic organisations, dominated by the Christian Democratic National Peasant Party and by the National Liberal Party, the historical parties from the interwar period), which on December 12, 1996 formed a coalition government together with the Social Democratic Union (an alliance of the Democratic Party and of the Romanian Social Democratic Party) and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians of Romania, an ethnic party of the Hungarian minority, which participates for the first time in government. The CDR candidate, Professor Emil Constantinescu, was elected President of Romania, succeeding Ion Iliescu (President between 1990 and 1996).

The democratic transfer of power was unanimously appreciated as a proof of maturity of the civic spirit and of the solidity of the democratic institutions. However, throughout this period the reform of the economy, despite the avowed options of all the post-revolutionary Governments for fast privatisation, economic restructuring, encouragement of foreign investment proved to be a most difficult task. The causes are numerous: Romania was much behind the other ex-communist countries like Hungary or Poland, where some reforms had been carried out even during the communist regime; the collapse of production; the dissolution of COMECOM which, in 1989, absorbed 80% of Romania's exports; the Yugoslav crisis; the option of the Iliescu regime and of the Government formed by the Party of Social Democracy of Romania and its allies between 1992-1996 (which not only once were accused of belonging to the former communist structures) for a slow pace of the economic reforms. The forces which came to power in 1996 announced the acceleration of all these processes but the results obtained so far are considered unsatisfactory, the causes including the tension within the coalition and the succesive government reshuffles.

As far as Romania's foreign policy is concerned, the options of all the Romanian political forces are in favour of a fast European and Euro-Atlantic integration. Despite the fragility and the dysfunctions registered by the institutions of the newly established democracy, Romania, which is the largest state in Central and South-East Europe, is a factor of stability and balance in the area.

Last update: 1999, August 18
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