ROMANIA Official name: Romania Location: Eastern Europe International organisations:The Council of Europe, The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation Borders: Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine Coastline: Black Sea Land area: 237,500 Km2 Population: 22,300,000

Ethnicity: Romanian 89.5%, Hungarian 7.1%, Roma 1.8%, German 0.5%
Languages: Romanian is the official language and is spoken by 90% of the population. Hungarian is spoken by 7% of the population.
Religion: About 70% of Romanians are at least nominally Romanian Orthodox Christians. The Hungarian minority are mostly Catholics. There are small Protestant and Jewish minorities.
Form of government: Presidential democratic republic. Romania is divided into 41 counties and the Bucharest Municipality.

Capital: Bucuresti (Bucharest)
Constitution: The Constitution of Romania came into effect on 8 December 1991.
Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a four-year term. The President is the real head of the government.
Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the President. The Prime Minister is usually the leader of the largest party in the lower house of the legislature, but in practice he is accountable to the President.
Legislature: The Romanian Parliament (Parlamentul Romaniei) is a bicameral legislature. The Chamber of Deputies (Camera Deputatilor) has 332 members elected for four-year terms, of whom 314 are elected by proportional representation and 18 members are elected to represent ethnic minorities. The Senate (Senatul) has 137 members, elected for four-year terms by proportional representation. (The number of members of both houses changes according to changes in population.)
Electoral authority: The Romanian Central Election Bureau administers national elections.
Freedom House rating: Political Rights 2, Civil Liberties 2

Political history

The three historic Vlach or Romanian principalities of Wallacia, Moldavia and Transylvania were brought under Ottoman rule in the 15th century, although they retained some degree of autonomy. An independence movement developed in the 19th century and in 1866 Romania became an independent principality under an imported Hohenzollern prince. In 1881 the country became fully independent as the Kingdom of Romania, although Transylvania remained under Hungarian rule until 1918.

Ion Bratianu

After the First World War Romania established a parliamentary system, and the liberal leader Ion Bratianu attempted to carry out land reform and other steps towards a stable democracy. But his efforts were thwarted by ethnic and political conflict, and in 1938 a royal dictatorship was established by King Carol II. From 1940 a fascist regime under Marshall Ion Antonescu held power, and Romania entered the Second World War as a German ally. This led in 1944 to Soviet occupation, the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a Communist regime in 1947. Under the Communist ruler Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej from 1947 to 1965, Romania was an orthodox member of the Soviet bloc. His successor Nicolae Ceausescu, however, established a bizarre personal dictatorship which isolated and the country and ruined its economy, although Ceausescu was for a time favoured by the west because of his independence from Soviet domination. In December 1989 Ceausescu was overthrown and executed when a popular revolt triggered an army coup.

Romania has had a difficult transition to democratic government and a free market economy, with frequent strikes, riots and changes of government. The former Communist Ion Iliescu has been the dominant figure, as President 1989-96 and 2000-2004. Iliescu's Democratic Social Party of Romania is a cleaned-up successor to the former Communist Party. It is allied with the more genuinely democratic Romanian Social Democratic Party.

The parties of the left were helped until 2004 by the fact that the right was dominated by the Party of Great Romania of Vadim Tudor, an extreme nationalist party tinged with anti-Semitism. More traditional conservatism is represented by the Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party. The Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Romania represents the Hungarian minority in Transylvania. In 2004 Traian Bãsescu was elected President at the head of a centre-right coaliion including the Democrats and the National Liberals.