Parliamentary elections were held in Romania on 6 December 2020 to elect the 136 members of the Senate and the 330 constituent members of the Chamber of Deputies.
While the Social Democratic Party (PSD) remained the largest political party in the Parliament, its popular vote share dropped considerably, more specifically by a third. Following the elections, a centre-right coalition government was formed by the National Liberal Party (PNL), USR PLUS, and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians (UDMR/RMDSZ) (i.e. the former Cîțu Cabinet) with former Minister of Public Finance and former PNL president Florin Cîțu as Prime Minister.
The final voter turnout was approximately 32%, the lowest since the end of the communist era in Romania, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Electoral system
The 330 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by several methods: 308 are elected from 42 multi-member constituencies based on counties and Bucharest, using proportional representation, four are elected using proportional representation from a constituency representing Romanians living abroad. Parties must pass a threshold of 5% of the national vote or at least 20% of the vote in four constituencies. Further seats (currently 18) can be added for ethnic minority groups that compete in the elections and pass a special (lower) threshold (calculated as 10% of the votes needed to obtain one of the regular 312 seats).
The 136 members of the Senate are also elected using party-list proportional representation, but from 43 constituencies based on the 41 counties (a total of 121 seats), Bucharest (13 seats), and one for Romanians living overseas (two seats).
Government
The previous election saw the Social Democratic Party (PSD) led by Liviu Dragnea emerge as the largest political party in the parliament, although they fell short of an absolute majority. Nevertheless, the PSD eventually established a coalition agreement with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), forming the Grindeanu Cabinet in January 2017. However, the new government did not last long and was replaced by the Tudose Cabinet in June 2017, which was also short-lived. Ultimately, the Dăncilă Cabinet took office in January 2018. It was dismissed by a motion of no confidence in October 2019, and replaced by a National Liberal Party (PNL) minority government under Ludovic Orban in November 2019. The Orban Cabinet was dismissed by a motion of no confidence on the 5 February 2020, but took office again on 14 March 2020.
Period before the political campaign
The government decided parliamentary elections would be held on 6 December 2020. On 30 September 2020, the president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, proposed on Facebook that the elections be postponed to March 2021. On 2 October 2020, former Save Romania Union (USR) deputy Adrian Dohotaru submitted a bill to the Senate, proposing the parliamentary elections be held on 14 March 2021, which received support from the Social Democratic Party (PSD). On 7 October 2020, the first vice-president of the PSD, Sorin Grindeanu, claimed that the government's plan would lead to a surge in COVID-19 cases. On 8 October, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu and Victor Ponta announced in a press conference that their parties will run in the elections on a shared list under a single name: Social-Liberal PRO Romania ().
PSD president Marcel Ciolacu announced on 15 October that the World Health Organization's representative in Romania, Alexandru Rafila, was one of the party's candidates for the parliamentary elections. He will be top of the list of deputies for the Bucharest circumscription, while Gabriela Firea will lead the list of senators.
Political parties
The following table presents the composition of the Parliament of Romania during the 2016–2020 parliamentary term.
Opinion polls
Graphical summary
The chart below shows opinion polls conducted for the 2020 Romanian parliamentary election. The trend lines represent local regressions (LOESS).
Party vote
Incidents
An 80-year-old man from Teiu, Argeș fell into cardiac arrest and died outside a polling station on election day. He was known to have heart problems.
Two polling stations from Sector 3 of Bucharest had their voting suspended: for about an hour at polling station 551, after a member of the electoral bureau tested positive for COVID-19; and for two and a half hours at station 643, after the death of a voter.