The president, who holds some significant powers in Romania’s semipresidential system, is directly elected for up to two five-year terms. The president appoints the prime minister in consultation with the parliamentary majority, and the prime minister’s government requires the confidence of Parliament. Presidential and parliamentary elections held since 1990 have been generally free and fair. Incumbent president leader Klaus Iohannis, who had belonged to the PNL, won a second term in November 2019, winning 66.1 percent of the vote in a runoff.

Nicolae Ciucă of the PNL acted as prime minister between November 2021 and June 2023, in a coalition with the PSD and the UDMR. In June, Marcel Ciolacu of the PSD succeeded Ciucă in line with the coalition agreement. The UDMR left the coalition after its ministerial portfolios were taken away. Ciucă became the president of the Senate, which in Romania is the equivalent of the country’s vice president.

Members of the bicameral Parliament, consisting of a 136-seat Senate and a 330-seat Chamber of Deputies, are elected to four-year terms in a closed party-list proportional system. Elections for both houses were held in December 2020. Turnout for both chambers was low, as the polls were affected by COVID-19 restrictions.

In the Chamber of Deputies, the PSD won 28.9 percent of the vote and 110 seats, while the PNL won 25.2 percent and 93 seats. The 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance—which consisted of the Save Romania Union (USR) and the Party of Liberty, Unity, and Solidarity before their merger was officially recognized in 2021—won 15.4 percent and 55 seats. The UDMR won 5.7 percent and 21 seats. The nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) entered Parliament for the first time, winning 9.1 percent and 33 seats.

In the concurrent Senate elections, the PSD won 29.3 percent of the vote and 47 seats, while the PNL won 25.6 percent and 41 seats. The 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance won 15.9 percent and 25 seats, the AUR won 9.2 percent and 14 seats, and the UDMR won 5.9 percent and 9 seats.

The legal framework generally provides for fair and competitive elections. The Romanian electoral framework relies on a Central Election Bureau, which includes judges and political representatives, and a Permanent Electoral Authority, which manages voter registration, campaign finance, and logistics.

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observers who monitored the December 2020 parliamentary elections noted the complexity of the legal electoral framework. Observers criticized parliamentarians’ fast-tracking of electoral-law amendments that September, limiting public debate.

Romania’s multiparty system features active competition between rival political parties. Under the 2015 electoral law, the number of signatures needed to create a new party decreased dramatically, leading to the registration of many new parties. Some 217 parties and alliances competed in the September 2020 local elections; 24 parties and individual candidates competed for Senate seats that December, while 82 groups and candidates, including ethnic minority groups, competed for lower-house seats.

Critics have argued that signature thresholds to register candidates for local and parliamentary elections still place new and smaller parties at a disadvantage.

The country has established a record of peaceful transfers of power between rival parties. Since 1996, the PSD and the PNL, the two largest parties in the country, have alternated in government with the exception of two times when they governed together. So far, no political party has governed two full terms in a row. Governments often fall in no-confidence votes; the grand coalition initially led by Nicolae Ciucă took office in November 2021, after a previous PNL-led coalition government lost such a vote, and remained in power at the end of 2023.

People are generally free to make political choices without undue pressure from unaccountable actors. However, clientelism in politics remains a problem both in local and national elections. In small towns and villages, mayors retain significant leverage over voters. Local mayors are known to switch parties to secure funding or other resources. Media reports documenting clientelism in national politics emerge regularly, involving both government and opposition parties.

Ethnic, religious, and other minority groups enjoy full political rights under the law. The constitution grants one lower-house seat to each national minority whose representative party or organization wins no seats otherwise, with a maximum of 18 seats allotted in this fashion. President Iohannis, an ethnic German and a Lutheran, is the country’s first president from either minority group. The UDMR, which represents the Hungarian minority, was part of the coalition governments between December 2020 and June 2023.

Roma, who make up 3.4 percent of the population, are underrepresented in politics. Social discrimination against LGBT+ people discourages political advocacy for their rights.

Data collection on gender representation is lacking, and there are no national-level policies to encourage female political participation. Some 19.2 percent of the lower house’s seats and 17.8 percent of Senate seats were held by women as of December 2023. There are six women in the 20-member Ciolacu cabinet.

Elected officials are generally able to craft and implement government policy without outside interference.

High levels of corruption, bribery, and abuse of power persist. Romania maintains a comprehensive anticorruption action plan, though the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) noted in a 2020 report that anticorruption bodies face pressure when pursuing high-level cases.

A large number of corruption cases were closed after a 2018 Constitutional Court ruling that struck exceptions to existing statutes of limitation and after it allowed for cases to be retroactively closed in a 2022 decision. In July 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the Constitutional Court’s decisions created a “systemic risk of impunity” and said that the 2018 ruling should not be applied by Romanian courts.

In August 2023, following two explosions at an unlicensed gas station in Crevedia that resulted in six deaths and numerous injuries, the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) started investigating two public officials for misusing their offices.

Citizens have the legal right to obtain public information and can petition government agencies for it. However, processes for soliciting participation and input from various stakeholders and civil society experts are poorly defined, and the government widely utilizes emergency ordinances for legislating.

Although the media environment is relatively free and pluralistic, key outlets remain controlled by businesspeople with political interests, and their coverage is highly distorted by their owners’ priorities. Media outlets increasingly rely on publicly funded advertising and subsidies, jeopardizing the outlets’ independence. The 2023 Digital News Report, published by the Reuters Institute in June, noted that independent investigative journalism is impeded by weak freedom-of-information legislation, and by spending on the part of political parties to influence media coverage.

In January 2022, journalist Emilia Șercan reported that then prime minister Ciucă had plagiarized his doctoral dissertation and went on to report on plagiarism on the part of other PNL politicians. Șercan was targeted with threats; the nonconsensual use of her private images; and an apparent December 2022–January 2023 smear campaign, likely orchestrated by PNL elements. In February 2023, a group of press freedom organizations called on Romanian authorities to prosecute those responsible for targeting Șercan. Prosecutors subsequently closed an investigation into threats against Șercan; a separate investigation into the misuse of Șercan’s private images was closed by prosecutors in October 2023.

Religious freedom is generally respected. While the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR) remains dominant and politically powerful, the government formally recognizes 18 religions, each of which is eligible for proportional state support. Others can register as religious associations. There have been reports of discrimination and harassment against religious minorities, including vandalism in Jewish cemeteries and media articles referring to Islam and Muslim migrants as threats to Romania. The promotion of antisemitism was banned by legislation adopted in 2018.

The government generally does not restrict academic freedom, but the education system is weakened by widespread corruption and politically influenced appointments and financing. School principals are sometimes appointed politically and receive funding according to their political affiliation and allegiance. In September 2023, the USR criticized the PNL and the PSD for appointing individuals who engaged in plagiarism to a national educational body.

People are generally free to express their opinions without fear of retribution. In the past, some social media users received fines after they were accused of insulting police.

Romania’s constitution guarantees freedom of assembly.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operate without major formal restrictions. Nevertheless, many human rights and governance groups suffer from funding shortages and face hostility and smears from politicians and other actors.

Workers have the right to form unions, have a limited right to strike, and can bargain collectively, though laws against the violation of these rights are not well enforced. There are legal constraints on the ability of unions to participate in political activity.

The judiciary is generally independent and progress in this area was reflected in the lifting of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism by the European Commission in November 2022. Nevertheless, the judiciary continues to face pressure from the executive and legislative branches.

The law provides safeguards against arbitrary arrest and detention which are generally respected. However, the right to a fair and timely trial is often undermined by institutional problems including corruption, political influence, staffing shortages, and inefficient resource allocation. Many government officials and lawmakers have retained their positions despite criminal indictments or convictions by exploiting such weaknesses in the system.

The population faces no major threats to physical security, but prisons and detention centers feature harsh conditions, and the abuse of detainees by police and fellow prisoners remains a problem.

The law provides broad protections against discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other categories. However, people with disabilities, LGBT+ people, Roma, and HIV-positive children and adults face discrimination in education, employment, medical-service provision, and other areas. Some political actors, including the AUR, employ anti-LGBT+ rhetoric to galvanize conservative parts of society against political adversaries. The constitution guarantees women equal rights, but gender discrimination remains a problem in many aspects of life.

In 2022, the Senate passed a UDMR-initiated bill that would prohibit sharing of information on LGBT+ issues to individuals under the age of 18. A Chamber of Deputies committee offered its support to the bill in later 2022, but the entire chamber had not scheduled a vote on the measure by the end of 2023.

Citizens generally face no significant restrictions on freedom of movement, whether for internal or external travel, and can freely change their place of employment or education. In December 2023, the European Council agreed to remove air and sea border checks with Romania effective March 2024, though the decision did not apply to land crossings.

Property rights are protected by law, but there are still some problems with the restitution claims for property confiscated during the communist era. Bureaucratic barriers, corruption, and broader weaknesses in the rule of law hamper some private business activity. Politicians and politically connected individuals are known to receive favorable terms in property transactions when compared to ordinary Romanians.

While personal social freedoms are generally protected, domestic violence remains a serious problem, and laws meant to combat it are poorly enforced. Same-sex marriages are not permitted under Romanian law. However, in 2018, the Constitutional Court recognized the residency rights of same-sex couples married elsewhere, provided that one spouse is a European Union citizen.

In May 2023, the ECtHR ruled that the Romanian government did not recognize same-sex couples’ right to recognition, contributing to their difficulty in accessing services. The ECtHR ruled that the government must create a framework for legal recognition. The government later appealed the ruling. In September, the government supported a bill that would offer recognition for same-sex marriages conducted in other EU member states, though the NGO ACCEPT said that the bill would not offer full recognition for same-sex spouses.

The law provides basic protections against exploitative working conditions, though they are unevenly enforced, particularly in the large informal economy. Economic opportunity varies widely between urban and rural areas, and such disparities limit social mobility for some. Human trafficking for the purpose of forced labor and prostitution remains a serious problem. Women and Roma children are especially vulnerable to forced begging.