Senate of Romania

Senatul The Senate
Type	Upper house
Houses	Senatul
President	Nicolae Văcăroiu, PSD since 2004
Members	137
Political groups	Social Democratic Party: 43 National Liberal Party: 22 Democratic Party: 22 Greater Romania Party: 16 Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania: 10 Conservative Party: 9 Independents: 14
Last elections	2004
Meeting place	Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest
Web site	www.senat.ro

Romania

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The Senate of Romania (Romanian: Senat) is the upper house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 137 seats (as of November 28, 2004), to which members are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms.

Former Senate headquarters

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the Senate was housed in Palatul Senatului, located in Revolution Square. That U-shaped structure was built from 1938 to 1941 under engineer Emil Prager's coordination, following the plans of architect Emil Nădejde. It housed the Council of Ministers and from 1958 to 1989 it was the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. During the Revolution, Romanian President Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena fled by helicopter from the roof of the building. In 2005 Senators moved into the Palace of the Parliament, joining their colleagues from the Chamber of Deputies. Palatul Senatului now houses offices of the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform.

Composition

2004 elections

In the Romanian legislative election, 2004, held on November 28, 2004, the Justice and Truth Alliance won the greatest number of seats, even though no party won an outright majority. The current President of the Senate of Romania is Nicolae Văcăroiu, who was elected on December 20, 2004. Following his ad interim presidency of Romania, he delegated his attributions to the vicepresident Doru Ioan Tărăcilă.

Until April 2007, the Justice and Truth Alliance governed in coalition with other minor parties. In April 2007, after the break-up of the Justice and Truth Alliance, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Hungarians formed a minority government coalition (highlighted in bold in the table below).

2000 elections

Elections to the Senate were held on November 26, 2000, in which the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSD) won an overall majority. Then President of the Senate of Romania was Nicolae Văcăroiu, who was elected in December, 2000. The allocation of seats was as follows:

Party	' % of seats'	seats
PSD	46.43	65
PRM	26.43	37
PNL	9.29	13
PD	9.29	13
UDMR	8.57	12
Others	0.00	0

Presidents of the Senate

External links

• Official web site of the Senate of Romania

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