Romanian Democratic Convention

1991–1992: Foundation

CDR was founded in 1991, one year before the 1992 elections, mainly by the PNŢCD (Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party) and the PNL (National Liberal Party) as well as by several noteworthy civic and cultural organisations, foundations, and other minor political parties. The main purpose of the CDR was to amount an effective opposition against the all-dominating National Salvation Front, a political force made up mostly of former second and third rank Communists, which assumed leadership of the country after the Romanian Revolution.

1992–1996: Opposition

For the period 1992–1996, CDR was the main political opposition force in the Parliament of Romania and in the local administration as well. Although the convention won the capital city of Bucharest and much of the larger urban centres at the 1992 local elections, FSN swept over almost all rural areas and small towns. In the 1992 general elections, individual parties were awarded seats as follows:

The alliance also included the UDMR/RMDSZ, which ran on a separate list, and a number of minor parties and civic organisations that failed to gain parliamentary representation: the Democratic Unity Party, the Christian Democratic Union, the Ecologist Federation of Romania (FER), the Civic Alliance and others.

At the 1992 general elections, Emil Constantinescu was the presidential candidate of the convention. He managed to qualify in the second round where he finished second with an electoral score of 38.57% (or 4,641,207 votes).

1996–2000: Government

Subsequently, CDR managed to win the 1996 Romanian elections, and the alliance's presidential candidate, once again Emil Constantinescu, became president with 54.41% (or 7,057,906 votes).

Below is the distribution of seats in the Chamber of Deputies between the components of the alliance after the 1996 elections, the first in post-1989 Romania that saw a peaceful transition of power:

For the period 1996–2000, the CDR formed a grand coalition with the Social Democratic Union (an alliance between the Democratic Party and PSDR) and the UDMR (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania). At governing level, this grand coalition resulted in the Ciorbea Cabinet (1996–1998), Vasile Cabinet (1998–1999), and Isărescu Cabinet (1999–2000).

CDR 2000

Due to internal frictions within the alliance (as well as given the somewhat inconsistent and turbulent governing from 1996 to 2000), the PNL withdrawn from the CDR prior to the 2000 general elections. Nonetheless, PNȚCD and other parties ran on the CDR 2000 common list for these elections. The alliance did not manage to score the same positive results as during the 1990s and, consequently, shortly disbanded since it did not pass the electoral threshold.