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, by a third. The elections resulted in a centre-right coalition government formed by the National Liberal Party (PNL), USR PLUS, and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (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).Electoral system IPU

Following the elections, seats are allocated to the candidates of successful parties and lists in several stages, starting with constituencies, where seats are distributed according to the Hare quota of the constituency. Unused votes are then transferred and congregated at the national level, where remaining seats are distributed using the D'Hondt method, to ensure overall proportionality between a party's national vote share and its share of parliamentary seats. These remaining seats are then allocated to party candidates within the constituencies, based on the party results in each constituencies.

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.

Party Founded Leader Ideology 2016 result Seats atdissolution Government support Ref Votes (%) Seats Grindeanu (2017)Tudose (2017–18) Orban II (2020) Social Democratic Party() PSD 2001 Marcel Ciolacu Social democracySocial conservatismLeft-wing nationalismSoft Euroscepticism 45.68% S National Liberal Party() PNL 1990(1875) Ludovic Orban Liberal conservatismPro-Europeanism 20.04% D20.42% S Save Romania Union() USR 2015As USB Dan Barna Anti-corruptionLiberalismEconomic liberalism 8.87% D8.92% S Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania(;) UDMRRMDSZ 1989 Hunor Kelemen Hungarian minority interestsLiberal conservatismChristian democracy 6.19% D6.24% S People's Movement Party() PMP 2014 Eugen Tomac Liberal conservatismChristian democracyEconomic liberalism 5.35% D5.65% S PRO Romania Social-Liberal() PRO 2018 Victor Ponta Social liberalismPro-Europeanism Did not exist Alliance of Liberals and Democrats()ALDE 2015 Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu LiberalismConservative liberalismSoft Euroscepticism 5.62% D6.01% S Subsequently merged with PRO Romania in 2020 Humanist Power Party() PPU-SL 2015 Daniel Ionașcu HumanismSocial liberalism 0.04% D0.04% S Ethnic minority parties – – – 1.34% D0.01% S colspan=2 Non-inscrits – – – –

Opinion polls

Party vote