Bitkova Tatiana Georgievna – Ph.D. in Philology, Leading Researcher, INION RAS
The article examines the role, place and specificity of Romanian parties that declare themselves as left-wing, analyzes the circumstances of their emergence and the history of their transformation in the post-communist period. It also provides an overview of those parties that do not fully consider themselves to be part of the left-wing political trend, but have some left-wing provisions in their dis-course. The author concludes that the programmatic attitudes of the Roma-nian left are, in some respects, close to or even identical to the socio-economic postulates of social democracy. A feature of Romanian political life is the very low support for left-wing parties in society, which is reflected in the voting results in all elections. The reason for this, according to most experts, lies in the mental rejection of the recent totalitarian past, with which left-wing ideology is associated. In addition, part-ing with the communist regime resulted in numerous victims during the bloody revolution. Being on the sidelines of the political mainstream, representing mar-ginal public sentiments, the left is focused on criticizing state structures and lead-ing political forces in relation to both domestic and especially foreign policy. The extreme left calls today's Romania a «colony» of Euro-Atlantic structures, advo-cates for the neutral status of the country, and is against the deployment of for-eign bases on its territory. However, given the low standard of living of the population and weak social support, the presence of a serious left-wing force in the country, as some experts believe, could balance the existing structure of Romanian political space.
Romania, left-wing parties, political structure, ideology, domestic and foreign policy.
Download text