People's Movement Party

The People's Movement Party (Partidul Mișcarea Populară, PMP) is a minor extra-parliamentary national-conservative   and social conservative   political party in Romania.

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. It was transformed into a political party in July 2013 and re-launched on 29 January 2014.

The PMP identified itself as Christian democratic and liberal in 2013. 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, Băsescu's daughter and MEP Elena Băsescu. and former Foreign Minister and head of the presidential administration Cristian Diaconescu.

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).

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.

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. 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 at 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 (Biroul Electoral Central, BEC). This failure led the party president, Eugen Tomac, to resign from the party's leadership.

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. On 19 February 2022, Eugen Tomac returned to the presidency of the party.

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. On 18 December, the alliance was formally named as United Right Alliance (ADU). 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.

Ideology
When it was founded January 2014, the party identified itself as Christian democratic, conservative, and economic liberal.

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. It has been described as right-wing populist and a supporter of Romanian–Moldovan unionism, and is positioned from centre-right to right-wing.

Leadership
{{legend|#1E90FF|Also served as President of Romania|outline=silver}}

Current notable members

 * Traian Băsescu
 * Eugen Tomac
 * Elena Băsescu
 * Robert Turcescu

Former notable members

 * Theodor Paleologu
 * Elena Udrea
 * Cristian Preda
 * Adrian Papahagi
 * Cristian Diaconescu
 * Daniel Funeriu
 * Mihail Neamțu
 * Siegfried Mureșan

Legislative elections
Notes:

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

Presidential elections
Notes:

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

European elections
Notes:

1 United Right Alliance members: USR, PMP and FD (2 MEPs USR, 1 MEP PMP).