POST-REVOLUTION ROMANIA, 1990: Romania's Ecologist Party (PER) comes into existence

On January 16, 1990, the Ecologist Party of Romania (PER) was founded, under the leadership of Adrian Manolache, according to "Romania: data and facts. 1989-2009,'' published by AGERPRES in 2010. On April 20, 1990, a convention of the party's National Conference elected Otto Ernest Weber as chairman, after Adrian Manolache resigned office. PER ran in the general election of May 1990, garnering 1.69% of the votes to the Chamber of Deputies (eight seats) and 1.38% of the votes to the Senate (one seat). Most of the votes were won in big cities with a higher than usual degree of pollution: Brasov, Sibiu, Alba Iulia, Bacau, Bucharest, PER informs on its website, www.per.ro. PER also participated in the founding of the Romanian Democratic Convention on November 26, 1991, together with PNTCD, PNL, PSDR, PAC, UDMR and the civic formations of the Democratic Anti-Totalitarian Forum of Romania (FDAR). By running on common lists with the other members of the Democratic Convention in the parliamentary election of September 27, 1992, PER got four seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The first meeting of the PER congress took place on April 25, 1994, to pass the party's constitution and manifesto and to elect the executive management: Otto Weber - national chairman and Anghel Rugina - honourary chairman. In the legislative election of November 3, 1996, PER again ran on the CDR lists, winning two seats in the Chamber of Deputies and three in the Senate. In August 2000, when CDR was reorganised, PER pulled out from the alliance, trying to coalesce a green pole around it. The Green Pole was thus created in Romania, on September 19, 2000, together with the Green Alternative "Ecologists" Party and the Ecologist Convention of Romania. However, the Green Pole failed to get the necessary votes to enter Parliament in the legislative election of November 26, 2000, when it performed below expectations (0.93% of the votes to the Chamber of Deputies and 0.99% of those to the Senate). This failure led to the formation of an initiative committee for the reorganisation of the party, composed of Cornel Protopopescu, Valentin Vasilescu, Adrian Panzatescu, Claudiu Protopopescu, Anton Creanga, Anghel Mihailescu, Vasile Grecu, Gabriela Bosneajoan and Nicolae Muresan. An extraordinary convention of the PER congress on September 1, 2001 adopted a new constitution and manifesto and elected a new leadership: Cornel Protopopescu - chairman, Grecu Vasile - first deputy chairman; Iuliana Dafinoiu - secretary general. The congress also established the party's strategy for the future of creating a single green party in Romania by merging the existing ones. In 2002, the Romanian Ecologist Party started merger negotiations with the Alternative "Ecologists" Green Party and the Ecologist Convention of Romania, and on March 1, 2003, their merger took place at an extraordinary convention of the party's congress. In the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 legislative elections, PER won extremely low results, failing to regain access to Parliament. On June 5, 2005, an extraordinary convention of the PER congress took place that which adopted a new constitution, a new manifesto and elected a new leadership: Petru Lificiu - chairman; Octavian Ciobota - chairman of the National Council; Marius Mateescu - executive chairman; Viorel Anton - secretary general. In June 2007, Petru Lificiu was dismissed from office, and Danut Pop took up the position of acting national chairman until the party congress convention in February 2008 when he was validated to the office. He held the position until April 7, 2008, when he delegated Cristian Jura, the party's secretary general elected at the February 2008 congress convention, to the position of chairman of the Romanian Ecologist Party. However, Cristian Jura stepped down from all his positions and from the party three months later, in June 2008. Following a convention for the of merger through absorption of the Party of the Ecologist Union of Romania with PER of July 14, 2012, the following central management was chosen: chairman - Danut Pop; honourary chairman - Mircea Cosea; chairman of the National Council - Cornel Protopopescu; executive chairman - Grecu Vasile, etc. An extraordinary convention of the party's congress on January 26, 2013 brought changes to the management: chairman - Danut Pop; honourary chairman - Mircea Cosea; chairman of the National Council - Dumitru Badragan; executive chairman - Radu Popa. PER defines itself as a centre party. The permanent logo of PER is a stylised full three-branched fir tree, green in colour, reading ECOLOGISTII in the upper part of an interrupted circle and PER in the lower part. The party's colours are green, yellow and white. The party's doctrine is green. PER's doctrine is based on green politics advocating the principles of freedom, private initiative, fair competition and property guarantees. The political option of the PER is: rule of law and eco-capitalism. AGERPRES (RO - author: Cristian Anghelache, editor: Roxana Mihordescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)