Mitropolitan Nifon - the first president of the Assembly of Deputies, 1862-1866
The 1866 Constitution
Historian Nicolae Iorga made de remark: "Romania could not just consent to the Russian claims to exchange Romanian land - national, old, historical, to negotiate on this fact in an entirely peaceful manner; this would have been a perpetual shame".
Grigore Gafencu, on the Parliament of Romania, in 1931: "In this new Parliament, all the parties are represented. The majority is weak, both from the viewpoint of numbers an the political one. The electoral law saved the Government and gave it everythink the electors did not. In the ranks of the majority, many opportunist politicians, clients of all political clubs, also many civilians…, nice and unprepared people, client of select clubs."
| You are here:: | Prima pagina > Introduction > Brief history |
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PARLAMENTARIAN INSTITUTION
The parliamentary history in Romania starts in 1831, when, in Wallachia, a constitutional document was adopted, named The Organic Regulations, implemented, a year later, in Moldavia too. The organic regulations set the fundations for the parliamentary institution in the Romanian Principalities.
 |
 |
| The Organic Regulations - Wallachia - |
The Organic Regulations - Moldovia - |
The Paris Agrement of 1858, and, mostly, The Agreement's Developing Statues (wich introduced the two-chamber representation), adopted on the initiative of prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, by means of a plebiscite, in 1864, perfected and enlarged the principle of national representation. Under the political regime established by the Paris Agreement, the legislative power faced an obvious process of modernisation, and the legislative power as National Representation, which operated in acordance with the organisation and operation mode of parliaments in Western Europe at that time.
 |
| The opening of the Election Assembly by prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza on 29 Februarie 1860 |
The historical process of formation of the Parliament of Romania in the modern age strongly boosted the affirmation of national sovereignty, subsequently leading to the Union of the two Principalities, in 1859. Under the dome of the Romanian Parliament, on 9 may 1877, the Declaration of Romania's Independence was read, and, in 1920, the documents of union of the Romanian historical Provinces with the country were ratified.
In February 1938, under strong political pressure, King Carol II, who always underminned the role of the parliamentary institution, imposed a rule of authoritarian monarchy. Under the royal dictatorship regime, the Parliament only became a decorative body, deprived of its main atributes.
In the autumn of 1940, by the setting up of the military dictatorship regime, the activity of the Parliament was suspended. After 23 August 1944, under the pressure of the Soviet and communist forces, the Parliament was re-organised as a single legislative body, the Assembly of Deputies, to be changed, according to the 1948 Constitution, into the Great National Assembly, a formal body, totally subordinate to the communist power.
The Revolution of December 1989 opened the road for Romania coming back to the authentic democratic regime, based on free elections and political pluralism, observing human rights, the separation of powers and the rulers responsibility before the representative bodies. Thanks to the documents issued by the provisional revolutionary power, Romania has returned to the two-chamber parliamentary system. All these stipulations can be found in the country's new Constitution, approved by referendum in 1991.
During this so tormented decade of post-communist transition, the Chamber of Deputies - along with the Senate - has debated and adopted an impressive number of laws and regulations, aimed at reforming the entire society on democratic bases, giving guarantees for the respect of fundamental human right, promoting the reform and privatisation, consolidating the market economic institutions and those of the state ruled by law, which are prerequisites for Romania's integration in the European and Euro-Atlantic structures.
