The Party of Liberty, Unity and Solidarity (, PLUS) was a

pro-European Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Polit ...

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

established on 26 October 2018, whose president was Dacian Cioloș, former

Prime Minister of Romania The prime minister of Romania ( ro, Prim-ministrul României), officially the prime minister of the Government of Romania ( ro, Prim-ministrul Guvernului României, link=no), is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was s ...

from 2015 until 2017, elected on 26 January 2019. The party had its origin in the Movement Romania Together (MRÎ), a project which they gave up due to the setting up delay in court. The party merged in 2021 with the

Save Romania Union The Save Romania Union ( ro, Uniunea Salvați România, USR) is a liberal political party active in Romania and Moldova, currently the third largest party in the Parliament with 43 deputies and 22 senators, and fifth at national level (following ...

(USR) with which it has been in a political alliance called ''2020 USR-PLUS Alliance'' from 2019 to 2021, then formally activating as a sole, unified party known as

USR PLUS USR PLUS was a Romanian progressive, liberal, and centrist political alliance active between 2019 and 2021. Established on 2 February 2019 solely as an electoral alliance between the political parties Save Romania Union (USR) and the Freedom ...

(subsequently renamed back to Save Romania Union or USR for short).

History

On 30 March 2018, former

Dacian Cioloș Dacian Julien Cioloș (; born 27 July 1969) is a Romanian agronomist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from November 2015 to January 2017. He previously served as Agriculture Minister under Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu between October 2007 and ...

announced his plans to establish a new political party, the ''Romania Together Movement'' (''Mișcarea România Împreună''), together with some of the former members of the

Cioloș Cabinet The Cioloș Cabinet was the 125th Government of Romania. It was led by Dacian Cioloș, who was appointed Prime Minister of Romania on 10 November 2015, after the resignation of Victor Ponta amid mass protests against generalised corruption link ...

, such as Dragoș Pîslaru,

Vlad Voiculescu Vlad Vasile Voiculescu (born 6 September 1983) is a Romanian politician and former Romanian Minister of Health in the Cîțu Cabinet (affiliated with the Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party, PLUS) whose term lasted from 23 December 2020 until h ...

, Alin Mituța, Dragoș Tudorache, and

Anca Dragu Anca Dana Paliu Dragu (born 3 May 1972) is a Romanian economist and politician. She was the former Minister of Public Finance and was the President of the Senate of Romania from 21 December 2020 until 23 November 2021. She is the first woman i ...

. Despite the party gaining notoriety in the subsequent months and appearing in various opinion polls, its official registration was never finalized due to various appeals and delays in the legal process, which Cioloș claimed to be politically motivated. After almost 9 months, on 15 December, Cioloș announced in

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

that the ''Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party'' (''Partidul Libertății, Unității și Solidarității'', PLUS) was registered by three of his colleagues, "who share the same values, the same principles, anonymous people, but who wanted to offer a helping hand". He also claimed that the former effort, the ''Romania Together Movement'', will be abandoned and that he and his team will focus on the development of PLUS. After the announcement, more than 7,500 people requested to join the party in 24 hours. The first National Convention of PLUS, which had the role of electing the president and the National Council of the organization, took place in Bucharest on 26 January 2019.

was elected president with 99.17% of the votes. Having previously announced his intention to participate in the

European Parliament elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Unti ...

, Cioloș was also chosen to lead the PLUS list for the elections. MEP

Cristian Preda Cristian Dan Preda (born October 26, 1966) is a Romanian professor and politician. He is professor of political science at the University of Bucharest and was between 2009 and 2019 a Member of the European Parliament. Education and academic car ...

announced on 29 January that he is joining PLUS, allowing the party to have delegates in all polling stations. On the evening of 2 February 2019, it was announced on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

that PLUS and the

(USR) established the 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance, which will participate in the 2019 European Parliament elections. While the party was not a member of

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

(ALDE), all its MEPs were individual members of this European political party.

Ideology

PLUS has not defined its ideology clearly. However, a manifesto was published on the party's website expressing support for liberty, social justice, transparency in public administration, as well as commitment to Romania's EU and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

membership. Cioloș, the party's president, claimed in an interview that PLUS is situated in "the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the Right-wing politics, right of the Left–right politics, political spectrum, but are closer to the Centrism, centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure a ...

area".

Electoral history

Legislative elections

Local elections

Presidential elections

Notes: ¹ Dan Barna was the candidate endorsed by the 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance.

European elections

Notes: ¹ 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance members:

USR USR may refer to: * USRobotics, a technology firm * USR (Guadeloupe football club), in Sainte-Rose, Guadeloupe * U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, a fictional robot manufacturer * /usr, directory in Unix systems, see Filesystem Hierarchy Standard ...

(4 MEPs) and PLUS.

Notes

References

External links

PLUS
{{Renew Europe Political parties established in 2018 2018 establishments in Romania Centrist parties in Romania Defunct liberal political parties Liberal parties in Romania Registered political parties in Romania Pro-European political parties in Romania Political parties disestablished in 2021 2021 disestablishments in Romania