Greater Romania Party

The Greater Romania Party (Template:Langx, PRM) is a Romanian far-right political party.<ref name="Bugajski1995">Template:Cite book</ref> Founded in May 1991 by Eugen Barbu and Corneliu Vadim Tudor, it was led by the latter from that point until his death in September 2015.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The party is sometimes referred to in English as the Great Romania Party.

It briefly participated in government from 1993 to 1995 (in Nicolae Văcăroiu's cabinet). In 2000, Tudor received the second largest number of votes in Romania's presidential elections, partially as a result of protest votes lodged by Romanians frustrated with the fractionalisation and mixed performance of the 1996–2000 Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR) government. Tudor's second-place position ensured he would compete in the second round run-off against former president and Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) candidate Ion Iliescu, who won by a large margin. Parallels are often drawn with the situation in France two years later, when far-right National Rally (RN) party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen similarly drew the second largest number of votes and was elevated, but nevertheless defeated, in the presidential run-off against Jacques Chirac.

Although Tudor clearly remained the central figure in the PRM, in March 2005 he briefly stepped down from the party presidency in favour of Corneliu Ciontu. A primary objective of the move was to provide the appearance of a shift toward the political center and to attempt to align PRM with the European People's Party (EPP) bloc in the European Parliament. During this period the PRM also briefly changed its name to the Greater Romania's People Party. EPP, however, rejected the PRM as a potential member. Tudor stated he refused to join the EPP because of its lack of identity. In June 2005, Tudor asserted that he had decided the new leadership had distanced itself from the founding principles of the party, and he sacked the new leadership and reverted the party's name back to simply the "Greater Romania Party". In November 2005, Ciontu, along with a small faction of the PRM, formed their own party, the People's Party (PP), which has since merged with the New Generation Party (PNG).

In January 2007, with Romania's accession to the EU România Mare's five MEPs joined a group of far-right parties in the European Parliament that included the French National Rally (RN) and Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), giving them sufficient numbers to form an official bloc, called Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Though due to disagreements, they left the group a few months later, causing its collapse. PRM was also a founding member of Euronat.

History and ideology

Template:Politics of Romania The party was founded in 1991 by Tudor, who was formerly known as a "court poet" of communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> and his literary mentor, the writer Eugen Barbu, one year after Tudor launched the România Mare weekly magazine, which remains the most important propaganda tool of the PRM. Tudor subsequently launched a companion daily newspaper called Tricolorul or Ziarul Tricolorul. The party claimed to be center-left and national.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (The historical expression Greater Romania refers to the idea of recreating the former Kingdom of Romania which existed during the interwar period. Having been the largest entity to bear the name of Romania, the frontiers were marked with the intent of uniting most territories inhabited by ethnic Romanians into a single country; and it is now a rallying cry for Romanian nationalists. Due to internal conditions under Communism after World War II, the expression's use was forbidden in publications until 1990, after the Romanian Revolution.) The party's initial success was partly attributed to the deep rootedness of Ceaușescu's national communism in Romania.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The party was accused of promoting anti-Romani sentiments.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Both the ideology and the main political focus of the Greater Romania Party (PRM) are reflected in frequently strongly nationalistic articles written by Tudor. The party has called for the outlawing of the ethnic Hungarian party, the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), for allegedly plotting the secession of Transylvania.<ref>Cinpoeș, Radu. "The Extreme Right in Contemporary Romania" (p. 5) October 2002. Accessed 31 July 2014.</ref>

PRM promotes the idea of a "Greater Romania" that would bring together all the territories populated by Romanians in neighboring countries (Ukraine and Moldova).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It especially calls for the annexation of Moldova.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The party has praised and shown nostalgia for both the military dictatorship of Axis ally Ion Antonescu, whom they consider a hero or even a saint,<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> and the communist regime of Ceaușescu.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The party rejected the 2006 Tismăneanu report on the communist dictatorship in Romania as a manipulation of history.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

In 2003, Tudor said he would no longer engage in discourse against Jews and Judaism or deny the Holocaust (see Corneliu Vadim Tudor). He also said that he had become, in his own words, a "philo-Semite". In subsequent months he and some of his supporters travelled to Poland to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp; and, despite strong objections from the family of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and many Jewish organisations,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Tudor illegally erected a statue in memory of Rabin in the city of Brașov (for which he was found guilty and fined). During this period, Tudor hired Nati Meir, a Jewish advisor, who ran and won as a PRM candidate for the Romanian Chamber of Deputies. Tudor also hired an Israeli public relations firm, Arad Communications, to run his campaign.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2013, Friedrich Ebert Foundation described the party as neolegionary.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Economically, PRM proposes social-democratic measures, speaking of "the equality of chances for all citizens, human solidarity and family values" and of "the development of national economy as a condition for a decent living for all citizens", and being in favour of the state’s intervention in economy.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 2024, the current president of the party, Victor Iovici, declared that the party is "centrist, with a patriotic orientation" and that "it collaborates with both left-wing and right-wing patriotic parties, as long as they are moderate and not extremist".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Party leaders

• Corneliu Vadim Tudor (1991–2015)
• Emil Străinu (2015–2016)
• Victor Iovici (2017–present)

Electoral history

Legislative elections

Election	Chamber			Senate			Position	Aftermath
	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
1992	424,061	3.89	Template:Composition bar	422,545	3.85	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	Template:Yes2 (1992–1996)
							Template:Partial (1996)
1996	545,430	4.46	Template:Composition bar	558,026	4.54	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	Template:No2 (1996–2000)
2000	2,112,027	19.48	Template:Composition bar	2,288,483	21.01	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	Template:No2 (2000–2004)
2004	1,316,751	12.92	Template:Composition bar	1,394,698	13.3	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	Template:No2 (2004–2007)
							Template:No2 (2007–2008)
2008	217,595	3.16	Template:Composition bar	245,930	3.57	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	Template:No2 (2008–2009)
							Template:No2 (2009–2012)
							Template:Partial (2012)
2012	92,382	1.25	Template:Composition bar	109,142	1.47	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	Template:Partial (2012–2014)
							Template:No2 (2014)
							Template:Partial (2014–2015)
							Template:No2 (2015–2017)
2016	73,264	1.04	Template:Composition bar	83,568	1.18	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	Template:No2 (2017–2019)
							Template:Partial (2019)
							Template:Partial (2019–2020)
2020	32,655	0.55	Template:Composition bar	38,475	0.65	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	Template:No2 (2020–2021)
2024	did not compete

Local elections

Election	County Councilors (CJ)			Mayors			Local Councilors (CL)			Popular vote	%	Position
	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
2016	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:Composition bar	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:Composition bar	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:Composition bar	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	N/A
2020	27,279	0.38	Template:Composition bar	11,693	0.14	Template:Composition bar	20,928	0.26	Template:Composition bar	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:Color box

Presidential elections

Election	Candidate	First round			Second round
		Votes	Percentage	Position	Votes	Percentage	Position
1992	did not compete
1996	Template:No2	597,508	Template:Percentage bar	Template:Color box
2000	Template:No2	3,178,293	Template:Percentage bar	Template:Color box	3,324,247	Template:Percentage bar	Template:Color box
2004	Template:No2	1,313,714	Template:Percentage bar	Template:Color box
2009	Template:No2	540,380	Template:Percentage bar	Template:Color box
2014	Template:No2	349,416	Template:Percentage bar	Template:Color box
2019	did not compete
2024	did not compete

European elections

Election	Votes	Percentage	MEPs	Position	EU Party	EP Group
2007	212,596	4.15%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	—	—
2009	419,094	8.65%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box1	—	NI
2014	150,484	2.70%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	—	—
2019	did not compete
2024	59,272	0.66%	Template:Composition bar	Template:Color box	—	—

Note:
¹ PNG-CD competed on PRM ballot, thus gaining 1 MEP.

External links

• Template:In lang Greater Romania Party
• Template:In lang România Mare (magazine) Template:Webarchive
• Template:In lang Tricolorul (magazine) Template:Webarchive