People's Movement Party

Political party in Romania From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The People's Movement Party (Romanian: Partidul Mișcarea Populară, PMP) is an extra-parliamentary national-conservative[4][5][6][7] and social conservative[8][9][10] political party in Romania.

AbbreviationPMP
PresidentEugen Tomac
Secretary-GeneralIonuț Simionca
Honorary PresidentTraian Băsescu
Quick facts Abbreviation, President ...
People's Movement Party
Partidul Mișcarea Populară
AbbreviationPMP
PresidentEugen Tomac
Secretary-GeneralIonuț Simionca
Honorary PresidentTraian Băsescu
FounderTraian Băsescu
Founded29 January 2014 (2014-01-29)
Split fromDemocratic Liberal Party (PDL)
HeadquartersStrada Iorga nr. 11, Sector 1, Bucharest
Youth wingPeople's Movement Youth Organization (OT MP)
Women's wingMP Women's Organization
MembershipUndisclosed[1]
Ideology
Pro-Europeanism
Political positionCentre-right to right-wing
National affiliationUnited Right Alliance
(2023–2024)
Alliance of Liberal-Conservative Right Forces
(since September 2024)
European affiliationEuropean People's Party
European Parliament groupEPP Group (2014–2024)
Renew Europe (since 2024)
International affiliationCentrist Democrat International
Moldovan counterpartNational Unity Party (2017–2023)[3]
Colors  Green
  Blue
Senate
0 / 134
Chamber of Deputies
0 / 330
European Parliament
1 / 33
Mayors
48 / 3,176
County Councilors
65 / 1,340
Local Council Councilors
238 / 39,900
Website
pmponline.ro
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History

The PMP was created as a political foundation in March 2013 by supporters of then incumbent state president Traian Băsescu, following his break with the leadership of the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) around former Senate president Vasile Blaga.[11] It was transformed into a political party in July 2013[12] and re-launched on 29 January 2014.[13]

The PMP identified itself as Christian democratic and liberal in 2013.[12] The new party's chairman after June 2014 was former minister of regional development and tourism and Băsescu's confidante Elena Udrea. Other notable members include former culture minister Theodor Paleologu, former foreign minister Teodor Baconschi, former minister of education Daniel Funeriu, or member of European Parliament (MEP) Cristian Preda,[14] Băsescu's daughter and MEP Elena Băsescu.[15] and former Foreign Minister and head of the presidential administration Cristian Diaconescu.[16]

In the 2014 European election, the party won 6.2% of the votes and two of Romania's 32 seats. Its members of the European Parliament Siegfried Mureșan and Cristian Preda joined the European People's Party Group (EPP), although Preda has since been expelled from the party. On 12 September 2014, the PMP was admitted as a full member to the European People's Party (EPP).[17]

For the November 2014 presidential election, the PMP nominated Elena Udrea. She was also endorsed by the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD). With 5.2% of the popular vote, she was placed fourth and did not qualify for the second round. The party asked its voters to endorse Klaus Iohannis of the National Liberal Party (PNL) in the runoff election.[18]

On 12 July 2016, Traian Băsescu announced that the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR) would merge with PMP on 20 July 2016.[19] Subsequently, the union between the two parties failed and PMP lost several representatives both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies.

In the 2020 legislative election, due to poor presence at the polling stations (33.30%) caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the party failed to earn 5% of the public vote and thereby failed to enter parliament. The episode was controversial to say the least as the party was very close to the threshold and had zero votes in several polling stations in which they had party representatives whose votes were nowhere to be found. As a result, the party contested the results and demanded recounting the votes in as many as 1,090 polling stations. Nonetheless, this demand was ultimately refused by the Central Electoral Bureau (Romanian: Biroul Electoral Central, BEC). This failure led the party president, Eugen Tomac, to resign from the party's leadership.[20]

After a party congress held on 7 March 2021, Cristian Diaconescu was elected the new president and designated the party's candidate for the forthcoming 2024 Romanian presidential election.[21] On 19 February 2022, Eugen Tomac returned to the presidency of the party.[22]

On 14 December 2023, Save Romania Union (USR), Force of the Right (FD) and the People's Movement Party officially announced the creation of a right-leaning electoral alliance to contest in the 2024 elections.[23] On 18 December, the alliance was formally named as United Right Alliance (ADU).[24] In the 2024 European Parliament election, the party's MEP Eugen Tomac was re-elected and subsequently joined Renew Europe group together with USR MEPs.[25]

Ideology

When it was founded January 2014, the party identified itself as conservative and economic liberal.[26][8]

However, in the later years, the party became more traditionalist. Nowadays, it opposes the immigration of foreigners into EU (especially of Muslims), Marxism, socialism, globalisation, and same-sex marriage.[27][6][9][10][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] It has been described as right-wing populist[35][36] and a supporter of Romanian–Moldovan unionism,[37] and is positioned from centre-right[38] to right-wing.[39][40][41][42]

Leadership

  Also served as President of Romania
More information Nº, Name Born - Died ...
Name
Born - Died
Portrait Term start Term end Duration
Eugen Tomac
(acting)
(1981–)
23 June 2013 8 June 2014 11 months and 16 days
1 Elena Udrea
(1973–)
8 June 2014 30 January 2015 7 months and 22 days
Eugen Tomac
(acting)
(1981–)
30 January 2015 8 February 2015 9 days
2 Eugen Tomac
(1981–)
8 February 2015 27 March 2016 1 year, 1 month and 19 days
3 Traian Băsescu
(1951–)
27 March 2016 16 June 2018 2 years, 2 months and 20 days
(2) Eugen Tomac
(1981–)
16 June 2018 9 December 2020 2 years, 5 months and 23 days
Emil-Marius Pașcan [ro]
(acting)
(1971–)
9 December 2020 7 March 2021 2 months and 26 days
4 Cristian Diaconescu
(1959–)
7 March 2021 19 February 2022 11 months and 12 days
(2) Eugen Tomac
(1981–)
19 February 2022 Incumbent 4 years, 2 months and 16 days
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Notable members

Electoral history

Legislative elections

More information Election, Chamber ...
Election Chamber Senate Position Aftermath
Votes % Seats Votes % Seats
2012 did not exist1
16 / 412
did not exist
0 / 176
Extra-parliamentary opposition to USL government (2013–2014)
Opposition to PSD-UNPR-UDMR-PC government (2014)
Opposition to PSD-UNPR-ALDE government (2014–2015)
Endorsing the technocratic Cioloș Cabinet (2015–2017)
2016 376,891 5.35
18 / 329
398,791 5.65
8 / 136
 6th  Opposition to PSD-ALDE government (2017–2019)
Opposition to PSD minority government (2019)
Endorsing PNL minority government (2019–2020)
2020 284,501 4.82
0 / 330
291,484 4.93
0 / 136
 6th  Extra-parliamentary endorsement for PNL-USR PLUS-UDMR government (2020–2021)
Extra-parliamentary endorsement for PNL-UDMR minority government (2021)
Extra-parliamentary endorsement for CNR government (2021–2022)
Extra-parliamentary opposition to CNR government (2022–2024)
2024 189,678 2.05
0 / 330
173,703 1.88
0 / 136
 9th  Extra-parliamentary opposition to CNR government (2024–present)
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Notes:

1 These MPs were previously elected on the PDL list of the larger ARD electoral alliance at the 2012 legislative election.

Local elections

National results

More information Election, County Councilors (CJ) ...
Election County Councilors (CJ) Mayors Local Councilors (CL) Popular vote % Position
Votes % Seats Votes % Seats Votes % Seats
2016 368,985 4.46
41 / 1,434
304,924 3.57
18 / 3,186
360,035 4.30
1,315 / 40,067
368,985 4.46  5th 
2020 423,147 5.88
67 / 1,340
353,005 4.73
50 / 3,176
420,791 5.72
2,150 / 39,900
473,637 6.04  4th 
2024 AUD AUD
17 / 1,338
AUD AUD
6 / 1,830
AUD AUD
238 / 39,900
AUD AUD  7th 
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Mayor of Bucharest

More information Election, Candidate ...
Election Candidate First round
Votes Percentage Position
2016 Robert Turcescu37,098
6.46%
 4th 
2020 Traian Băsescu72,556
10.99%
 3rd 
2024 Nicușor Dan352,708
48.3%
 1st 
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Presidential elections

More information Election, Candidate ...
Election Candidate First round Second round
Votes Percentage Position Votes Percentage Position
2014 Elena Udrea1493,376
5.20%
 4th not qualified
2019 Theodor Paleologu527,098
5.72%
 5th not qualified
2024 Ludovic Orban220,089
0.22%
 11th election annulled
2025 Nicușor Dan31,979,767
20.99%
 2nd 6,168,696
53.60%
 1st 
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Notes:

1 Elena Udrea's candidacy to presidency in 2014 was also endorsed by the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD).

2 FD's candidate for presidency in 2024 was also endorsed by PMP.

3 Independent candidate endorsed by PMP

European elections

More information Election, Votes ...
ElectionVotesPercentageMEPsPositionEU PartyEP Group
2014 345,973 6.2% Steady
2 / 32
 6th  EPP Group
2019 522,104 5.7% Decrease
2 / 32
 5th  EPP EPP Group
2024 778,901 8.71% Increase
1 / 33
 3rd 
(within ADU)1
EPP EPP Group
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Note:
1ADU members: USR (2 MEPs), PMP (1 MEP) and FD (no mandates).

References

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