Greater Romania Party

History and ideology

The party was founded in 1991 by Tudor, who was formerly known as a "court poet" of communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, 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. (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. The party was accused of promoting anti-Romani sentiments.

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.

PRM promotes the idea of a "Greater Romania" that would bring together all the territories populated by Romanians in neighboring countries (Ukraine and Moldova). It especially calls for the annexation of Moldova.

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, and the communist regime of Ceaușescu. The party rejected the 2006 Tismăneanu report on the communist dictatorship in Romania as a manipulation of history.

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, 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.

In 2013, Friedrich Ebert Foundation described the party as neolegionary.

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.

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".

Party leaders

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

Electoral history

Legislative elections

Local elections

Presidential elections

European elections

Note:

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

References

References

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