Romanian Political Parties and Diaspora. Discourses and Electoral Strategies for Winning 2012 Elections

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1 Romanian Political Parties and Diaspora. Discourses and Electoral Strategies for Winning 2012 Elections Bogdan M. Popescu Researcher Institute of Political Science and International Relations, Romanian Academy 1. Introduction Starting with 1990, the year in which the Romanian citizens of Diaspora could vote for the first time at the consulates and embassies of Romania, but especially after 2002, when restrictions for travelling in the EU were cancelled, an important category of the Romanian electorate was represented by the citizens abroad. In the judicial system, the electoral rights are constitutional rights from which not only the citizens resident in Romania, but also those residing abroad can benefit. The debate regarding the increase of the accessibility and the representation rate of the citizens in the Diaspora grew in Romania especially in the political arena as the electoral mass of external voters extended, catching the interest of some political parties willing to win electoral capital. This article will make a short presentation of the migration dynamics of the Romanian communities in the EU space, further examining the tendencies of electoral participation abroad, along with the initiatives and specific strategies adopted by the Romanian political parties in the last years or recently regarding the Diaspora. Although we are approximately six months ahead of the legislative elections, time that is enough for the political parties to change or introduce new themes in their political discourse according to their positioning in front of the voters, we are going to present several working hypothesis that, in our opinion, will shape the electoral strategies of political parties in order to obtain the support of Romanian communities from abroad. 2. The migration dynamics and electoral participation of the Diaspora According to a study since , out of a total of 31 million foreign citizens on the EU territory, three quarters are concentrated in 5 countries: Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Germany and France. The first group represents 2,4 million Turkish residents that is 7,9% of the total number of foreigners, Moroccans (1,7 million) and the same number of Romanians, that are already far from the historical community of the Italians in the Northern Europe (1,3 million), Polish (1,2 million), Albanians (1 million). 1 See Antonio Ricci, România: imigraţie şi muncă în Italia înainte şi după aderarea la UE in Românii din Italia între respingere şi acceptare (edited by Confederaţia Caritas România and Caritas Italiana, Editura Idos, Roma, 2010), 15. 1

2 According to other statistics 2, at the time being more than half of the Romanian Diaspora all over the world is concentrated in two countries: Italy and Spain, both EU member states. These countries register around 2 million Romanian citizens, permanent or temporary residents, even if after the economic crisis some chose to or probably will choose to come back in their home country or in other countries that offer better opportunities. The period that followed the liberalization of the travel visas that came in 2002 represents what some authors 3 call the third stage of the Romanian s migration during the post-communist period or the maximum development stage of the migration process in which the phenomenon of migration becomes a mass phenomenon representing 10-28% of the Romanian population. The same study states that out of the number of departures, approximately 50% where headed towards Italy and 25% towards Spain, and also there was a massive differentiation between the three historical regions, Moldavia being the main pool of migration, followed by Muntenia and Transylvania. Bucharest and Dobrogea showed records of the lowest migration rate no matter the stage. 4 After the accession of Romania to the European Union in 2007, our country went through several electoral events at national level general elections or referenda of high importance in configuring the internal political arena of the local democracy, but also from the perspective of the participation in the European politics as a new member state. We can assert that after 1989, this period was most intense regarding the number of electoral events, the institutions of Romania being in a state of quasi-permanent mobilization as well as the political parties that were involved in the electoral confrontations. Leaving aside the partial parliamentary elections that were organized all over the country in several singlemember districts after the electoral reform of 2008 or the partial local elections, during this period there were a series of referenda and general elections: referendum for dismissal of the President of Romania (2007); elections for the European Parliament (2007); referendum for the introduction of single-member districts for the parliamentary elections (2007); elections for the Romanian Parliament (2008); elections for the President of Romania (2009); elections for the European Parliament (2009); referendum for changing the bicameral Parliament into a single chamber Parliament and the reduction of the number of members of the Parliament. This situation, generated also by the separation of the parliamentary elections and the presidential elections since 2008 and by the accession of Romania to the European Union, was a novelty for the Romanian political scene. The European integration had a substantial contribution to consolidating the Romanian communities inside the EU space. Obtaining the status of communitarian citizens for the Romanians living abroad, some of them without valid documents for residence at that time, had the consequence, on one side, of increasing the number of immigrants and, on the other side, represented an opportunity for claiming social and political rights from the resident country and also from the home country. One of the recurrent themes in the speech of the communities abroad was the desire of having their own representatives in the Romanian Parliament as an explicit recognition in regard to their own citizens rights with constitutional rights equal to those of the citizens that remained in their home country, as well as to the level of remittances, the consistent amounts of money sent back in the home country that gave an impulse to the national economy. 2 See the statistics presented in Bogdan M. Popescu, Reprezentare şi participare electorală în Diaspora, Revista de Ştiinţe Politice şi Relaţii Internaţionale 4 (2011) and Bogdan M. Popescu, Out-of-country voting Participation in elections of Romanian Diaspora, Romanian Review of Political Sciences and International Relations, 1 (2012). 3 See Sabin Drăgulin, Fluxul migraţional din perspectivă istorică. Studiu de caz: Românii din Italia ( ) Sfera Politicii, 166 (2011): See Sabin Drăgulin, Fluxul migraţional din perspectivă istorică. Studiu de caz: Românii din Italia ( ). 2

3 Therefore, according to statistics, the amounts sent back home by the Romanians that were living abroad recorded different rates from one country to another. An immigrant sent home in Romania around 350 Euro per month. But we must take into consideration that the numbers reflected by statistics represent only part of the banking operations made by the Romanians living abroad, those that were done through official bank accounts and banking operations companies. 5 The evolution of the remittances sent home by the Romanians living abroad 6 The amounts sent home by the Romanians living abroad billions of euros 7 5 See Monica Susanu, Dynamics of Remittances towards Romania after EU Adhesion, Annals of Dunărea de Jos University of Galaţi, Fascicle I. Economics and Applied Informatics Years XVII, 2 (2011): 14, available online at: 6 Statistics taken from Bussinessday ( apud Monica Susanu, Dynamics of Remittances towards Romania after EU Adhesion. 7 Statistics taken from Bussinessday ( apud Monica Susanu, Dynamics of Remittances towards Romania after EU Adhesion. 3

4 Until the electoral reform of 2008, the polling stations set up abroad were assigned to the constituencies of the Bucharest Municipality, the votes of the Diaspora making a contribution to the election of some deputies representing the capital city of the country. The reform of the electoral legislation in 2008 regulated a new extraterritorial constituency for the Romanian citizens with the residence abroad that included 6 single-member districts for the entire world. For the first time, the Romanian communities of the Diaspora had the possibility to elect their own representatives in the two Chambers of the Parliament: 4 deputies and 2 senators, representatives that must know and ensure the representation of their interests inside the legislative forum. The candidates proposed in the Diaspora must fulfill a series of conditions amongst which that of being a Romanian citizen with the residence in Romania. It is worth mentioning that the basis of determining the number of mandates for this extraterritorial constituency was not the norm of representation foreseen for the national constituencies (1 deputy for each inhabitants and 1 senator for each inhabitants), but a political decision of the parties. Although the participation of Diaspora in elections was never high until now against the total number of citizens that live in these countries, the progressive increase of the number of immigrants, especially in the EU countries, had a direct effect upon the increase of the participation rate abroad, as it can be seen in the following chart. The evolution of the number of voters from the foreign polling stations Parliamentary and presidential elections, 28th of November 2004, first round Parliamentary and presidential elections, 28th of November 2004, second round National Referenda concerning the impeachment of the Romanian President, 19th of May 2007 Election of the Romanian members in the European Parliament, 25th of November 2007 Elections for the Chambers of Deputies and the Senate of Romania, 30th of November 2008 Elections of the Romanian members in the European Parliament, 7th of June 2009 Presidential elections, 22nd of November 2009, first round Presidential elections, 22nd of November 2009, second round Referenda on changing the bicameral Parliament to an unicameral one and on reducing the number of members in the parliament to no more than 300, 22nd of November

5 As we showed on other occasions 8, the low participation rate of the Diaspora in parliamentary elections of 2008 of only voters (0,4% of the total number of votes), in spite of the general tendency to the increase of the electoral turnout, was mainly the direct result of the mandatory condition (imposed through the electoral reform of 2008) for voting that an extra document to prove the domicile abroad 9 must be shown, as well as of the lack of regulations regarding alternative voting methods of the Romanian legislation. Moreover, the stake and the type of elections influence the turnout: in this regard, the most attractive elections for the voters are the presidential ones, fact that is reflected by the highest participation rate in relation to the other types of elections. Even so, it is considered, generally, that the votes cast in Diaspora were essential for the final results of the legislative elections of 2008 when the Democratic Liberal Party obtained the majority of the mandates 10 from the constituency for the Romanians abroad, as well as for the results of the presidential elections of 2009 when Traian Basescu, the candidate supported by the same party for the position of President of Romania, was reelected due to an advantage of nearly votes abroad, considering the fact that his opponent obtained the majority of the votes inside the country. 3. Electoral strategies of the political parties in Diaspora In the actual European context, the most important parties in Romania began to realize the enormous potential of the Diaspora that is unexploited enough and which they cannot ignore due to the risk of losing an important political capital. From this reason, during the last years it could be noticed a greater attention from the large political parties in Romania given to the community of Romanians from the Diaspora in order to raise their interest, giving them the chance to be more active and more involved in the politics back home. This tendency was reflected for example in the introduction of special provisions, concerning the Romanian communities, in the statutes of the large political parties, in the interest shown in establishing branches in cities that have large Romanian communities abroad, in organizing cultural events where political leaders were participating, or in electoral campaigns. The provisions of the statutes that regard regional structures, attributions, and activities of the organizations abroad are particularly significant for the interest of the Romanian political parties in getting the support of Diaspora. Therefore, art. 43 of the Democratic Liberal Party s (PDL) Statute 11 stipulates that Romanian citizens that have the right to vote, having the domicile, residence or working place outside the Romanian frontiers can become members of PDL by submitting a written adhesion at the PDL premises in the country where they have their domicile, they reside or work. Moreover, art. 44 par. (3) of the PDL s Statute provides that The organizations from all the states form the Diaspora s organization of PDL and par. (4) that The organization of Diaspora is similar to a county level one. The attributions, as well as the correct manner in which the activity of the organization is organized, conducted, and managed are provided in the Regulation regarding the organization, conduct, and management of the activity of local and county organizations. 8 See Bogdan M. Popescu, Reprezentare şi participare electorală în Diaspora. See also Miruna Căjvăneanu, Votul Diasporei un drept refuzat, Reprezentarea Diasporei şi votul românilor din străinătate, Fundaţia Soros (2009): According to art. 18 alin. (8) of Law no. 35/ However, it should be mentioned that due to the electoral algoritm for the redistribution of votes, the votes cast inside the country also had a contribution to the final results abroad. 11 The statute of the Democratic Liberal Party can be accessed on-line at: 5

6 The Statute of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) 12, on the other side, states in art.12 that The Romanian citizens with the domicile or residence abroad can become members of PSD and can create groups or party organizations, under the provisions of the law of the country of residence. Also, art. 219 of the same statute provides that The PSD Diaspora s organization promotes and make popular the PSD s politics among the Romanian citizens from abroad and ensures the link with the Romanian communities and the members or sympathizers of the party in the Diaspora. Art. 20 of the same Statute states that Romanian citizens that have the domicile or residence abroad that are members of the PDS can become members of the PSD Diaspora if they apply for the organization, militate for the Political Program of PSD and assume the responsibility of active participation in the life of the organization. In a similar manner, art. 222 states: The organizational structure, the rights, and duties of the PSD Diaspora are similar to the County Organization of PSD. Once a member of the European Union, and afterwards, by the legal regulation of the single-member districts for Diaspora, the Romanian political parties organizations abroad through their representatives, have been focused on developing specific strategies that would answer the needs and interests of these communities. There is an obvious tendency in the strategies of the large Romanian political parties to open as many organizations and branches as possible in different countries with large Romanian communities. Also, to establish permanent links with those communities and to play the mediator role in the relation with different states authorities from the origin or residence country for solving specific problems. In this concern, several party organizations from the Diaspora have created portals and forums dedicated to those communities through which they can present their activities and undergoing projects, they can make announcements regarding different initiatives, record requests and maintain relations with the interested people, debate urgent matters and advice through questionnaires on the opinion of the members of the community. For this case, there are some portals that are representative such as those of the Social Democratic Party in Italy and Spain 13 ; Democratic Liberal Party 14 or National Liberal Party 15 that reflect initiatives and activities of the party organizations from several countries and cities of the Diaspora that have important communities. The Democratic Liberal Party, for example, the main beneficiary of the votes from the Diaspora developed a rich network of local organizations in several countries: Italy (Florence, Rome, Milan, Padova, Torino); Spain (Castellon, Alcala de Henares Zaragoza, Madrid, Alicante, Coslada, Malaga, Teruel, Bilbao, Valencia, Seville, Barcelona, Tarragona, San Sebastian), Portugal (Faro and Lisbon), Ireland (Dublin), Israel (Tel Aviv), France (Paris and Marseille), Great Britain (London), Greece (Athens), Moldavia (Chisinau), USA (Portland) and Canada (Montreal). Also, the Social Democratic Party, even if traditionally had a low percentage of votes in the Diaspora, has tried to correct this handicap during the last years through a more active and efficient involvement, by opening more local organizations in England, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Republic of Moldova or Spain. In larger cities with important Romanian communities the PSD had the support of its coalition partner, the PNL as opposition parties until May this year, and benefited from a raise of electoral capital due to the austerity measures taken by the previous government. Another initiative of the PNL Diaspora aimed at opening some liberal clubs in all areas where there are large Romanian communities so that they can have access to 12 The statute of the Social Democratic Party can be accessed on-line at: 13 See the link to the Social Platform of Italian Diaspora at and the Spanish Branch at 14 See the website of Democratic Liberal Party dedicated to Diaspora at: 15 See the website of National Liberal Party dedicated to Diaspora at: 6

7 information and to have the opportunity to get involved 16. At this time, there are several clubs functional in the following countries: Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Great Britain, some of them having more clubs 17. According to the existing information on the portal of this party the members of the Liberal Clubs have the right to freely express their opinions, to have civic or political initiatives and to express them and debate upon them as well as electing and being elected in coordination structures of the Liberal Club of the PNL. 18 It is expected that the phenomenon of opening new local organizations in the Diaspora would intensify during the period before the legislative elections that are set to take place at the end of this year, in the same time with the increase of the number of actions, events, electoral reunions inside Romanian communities in order to promote the parties messages, platforms and their candidates. For the Democratic Liberal Party, a priority of the government program of the last years was the introduction of alternative voting methods that would increase the electoral participation rate in the Diaspora, in particular the strategy of this party was to regulate as soon as possible the introduction of the postal voting for the citizens living abroad. In Romania, there was a draft law regarding postal voting since 2007 that failed before obtaining the Parliament s approval. The draft law for postal voting was introduced in the governing program of 2007, being published at the beginning of the year as legislative priority that would be presented to the Government in March Although the postal voting project, announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was considered a priority by the Romanian Government, one year later it was abandoned. The draft law proposed to introduce a complementary method of voting to going to the polling stations, the option for the Romanian citizens to vote by mail. The project was launched again at the end on November 2010, at the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that decided to create a workgroup of experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of the Interior and the Permanent Electoral Authority that would harmonize the opinions in order to identify the solution that would lead to the adoption of such a law correctly as soon as possible 19. The draft law that resulted was launched for public debate at the end of December At the end of January 2011, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized a round table with the members of parliamentary political parties, experts from the institutions involved, representatives from the civil society and academic sphere, declaring that the public debate on the subject is closed. At the initiative of the same ministry, there was also launched an information campaign, including the Diaspora, regarding the content of the project and its advantage. At that time, the leader of the National Liberal Party declared that the party he represents is not opposing to this project but that it has some issues regarding its regulation because of the risk that the Democratic Liberal Party would use it as an instrument for frauding the future elections in order to perpetuate power. On that occasion, the liberal leader launched to 16 See the link 17 Only in Italy, for exemple, there are 8 such clubs: Liberal Club Toscana - Pistoia; Liberal Club Roma; Liberal Club Toscana - Lucca; Liberal Club Sezze - Lazio; Liberal Club Toscana - Grosseto; Liberal Club Siracusa - Sicilia; Liberal Club Milano - Lombardia; Liberal Club Palombara, and in Germany 10: Liberal Club Bayern; Liberal Club Rottweil (Baden-Württemberg); Liberal Club Bremen; Liberal Club Karlsruhe (Baden- Württemberg); Liberal Club Reutlingen (Baden-Württemberg); Clubul Liberal Waldbröl (North Rhine- Westphalia); Liberal Club Berlin; Liberal Club Hessen; Liberal Club Düsseldorf; Liberal Club München. 18 See the link: 19 See the website specially created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania for promoting the postal voting project at: 7

8 discussion the polemic idea of conditioning the right to vote abroad by having at least one tax paid in the home country. Given the reserves manifested inside the governing coalition by the Democratic Hungarian Union of Romania that did not see any immediate benefits from regulating the postal voting this draft law was again abandoned, even more as, after the victorious censorship motion from the end of April 2012, the governing coalition represented by the Social Liberal Union does not consider appropriate at this time such a project. Known the promoting campaign that was made for this project in the last years by the Democratic Liberal Party, it is expected that in its electoral speech from this fall the theme of postal voting would reappear as campaign message in Diaspora. Other draft laws with campaign potential promoted by the Democratic Liberal Party in the Parliament, without being regulated, are the increase of the number of MPs for the Diaspora from 6-2 senators and 4 deputies to minimum deputies and 4 senators as well as creating an emergency fund for the Romanians living abroad 20. On the other side, the parties composing the Social Liberal Union, mainly the two parties with important electoral capital (Social Democratic Party and National Liberal Party), taking advantage of the new favorable situation of reaching the Govern started the offensive of winning the Diaspora s votes by a series of measures that address the specific needs of the Romanian communities abroad. For example, the objectives assumed by the organization of the PSD Diaspora are the following: 1. The elimination of restrictions on the labor market. 2 Cultural identities. 3. Creating and proving an emergency fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the repatriation. 4. Developing consular networks and consular mobile networks inside Romanian communities. 5. Decreasing the level of consular taxes for the Romanians living abroad. 21 Other initiatives of the PSD concern free advice on themes regarding access to European funds and legal advice in general, free courses of Romanian language and culture, as well as international languages courses for the Romanian citizens both adults and children from Spain, different courses for informatics, business administration, electoral marketing, etc. Also, local organizations took position against austerity measures that affected Romanian communities or against the restrictions imposed on the labor market to the Romanian citizens by certain countries. Besides the political initiatives at the highest level, but also at the level of local organizations of the Diaspora, important leaders of the Romanian parties had meetings with the representatives of the authorities in Spain, Italy, Belgium, etc. in order to discuss different needs and problems of the Romanian communities. As a strategy for winning the legislative elections set to take place at the end of this year it could be mentioned the change that the senator Viorel Badea (President of the Commission for the Romanians from Abroad from the Romanian Senate) from PDL Diaspora made by affiliating himself to the National Liberal Party. He declared that at the basis of his decision stood the issues inside the party and that, along with him, there would be 20 leaders of some PDL Diaspora branches that would leave for PNL, mostly from Italy. The decision of the PDL senator of switching the party was not without an echo, several local organizations of the Diaspora protesting against him being accepted in PNL See the projects initiated by the PDL s MP William Brânză, the chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for the Romanians Abroad and also of PDL Diaspora at 21 See the PSD Diaspora website at: 22 See 8

9 4. Conclusions As the options of the main political actors come out at this moment, they cannot be too sensibly dissociated by the general strategies for the electoral campaign inside the country. And, from this point of view, there are two major positions detaching, whose distinctive features are originated in the actual status of each political actor in the new context created by the change of executive power in Bucharest at the end of April Consequently, we see two divergent options: on one side, a Social Liberal Union, recently changing its status of opposition to the one of power, but given by the opinion polls as favorite for the next elections, on the other side PDL (abandoned by all the other political allies that formed the governing coalition), being in the opposition and considered, on the basis of the same opinion polls, as defeated in the parliamentary elections. In fact, this change of roles on the political scene leaded also to a reverse of the strategic options (as revealed by the last changes inside the legislative): more precisely taking over by the USL of an older initiative of the presidency and the PDL, the one identified as the pure uninominal vote 23 and its passing through the Superior Chamber of the Parliament. The legislative change switches the stake of the vote from the party to the candidate, option that was considered some months before, profitable for PDL whose leaders appreciated at the time that they could get rid of the burden of the bad governance, highlighting the candidates that would be elected out of those who are less politically used. Concerning the Diaspora, the initiative of the USL aims, in our opinion, to overcome a possible disadvantage that is the lack of credibility that at least a part of PSD could still have among that electorate, because it is assimilated to the tradition of the National Front of Salvation 24 and the former president Iliescu and not only. Events worth noted from the elections for the European Parliament in 2009, to give an example, verified this reality when a candidate would have the sympathy and adhesion of an important number of voters, but was reproached for being a member of that party. For PDL, a supporter of this type of electoral system when having the power, now it is not favorable considering that it could turn the same results as for the political opponents of PSD in the past, that is the association with the bad governance. At this moment, the rhetoric of victimization due to the economic crisis and austerity measures seems to have lost its convincing powers. Bibliografie generală CĂJVĂNEANU, Miruna, Votul Diasporei un drept refuzat, Reprezentarea Diasporei şi votul românilor din străinătare, Fundaţia Soros, May CINGOLANI, Pietro şi PIPERNO, Flavia, Il prossimo anno a casa. Radicamento, rientro e percorsi translocali: il caso delle reti migratorie marginea Torino e Focşani-Roma, CeSPI and FIERI, DRĂGULIN, Sabin, Fluxul migraţional din perspectivă istorică. Studiu de caz: Românii din Italia ( ) in Sfera Politicii no. 12 (166) / POPESCU, Bogdan M., Reprezentare şi participare electorală în Diaspora in Revista de Ştiinţe Politice şi Relaţii Internaţionale, no. 4/2011. POPESCU, Bogdan M., Out-of-country voting Participation in elections of Romanian Diaspora in Romanian Review of Political Sciences and International Relations, no. 1/ In fact, a majority system with a single round used traditionally in the UK with some minor adjustments like provision of seats for national minorities. 24 Often associated in the past with the ex-communist regime. 9

10 RICCI, Antonio, România: imigraţie şi muncă în Italia înainte şi după aderarea la UE în Românii din Italia între respingere şi acceptare, Confederaţia Caritas România and Caritas Italiana (ed.), Editura Idos, Roma, SUSANU, Monica, Dynamics of Remittances towards Romania after EU Adhesion în Annals of Dunărea de Jos University of Galaţi, Fascicle I. Economics and Applied Informatics Years XVII no. 2/2011, p. 14, article available on-line at: 10