- published: 13 Mar 2015
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The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term (since 2004, after the Constitution was modified in 2003). An individual may serve two terms. During his/her term in office, the President may not be a member of any political party. The President of Romania has the right to name the Prime Minister at his discretion after consulting the political parties in the Parliament and if his proposals are turned down by the Parliament two times in 60 days, except for the last 6 months of neither the first or second term, the President can dissolve the Parliament and call for early elections. The President can only name the Prime Minister and not dismiss him from office but can refuse naming of members of the cabinet once and have no right to act the second time, even though the same name is proposed, this happened during Tăriceanu II Cabinet in 2007 by Traian Băsescu, more precisely for Adrian Cioroianu's proposal for Minister of Foreign Affairs who ultimately was dismissed after an unsuccessful year in office.
Romania (i/roʊˈmeɪniə/ roh-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Roumania; or Rumania;Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and Moldova to the northeast and east, and Bulgaria to the south.
At 238,400 square kilometers (92,000 sq mi), Romania is the ninth largest country of the European Union by area, and has the seventh largest population of the European Union with over 19 million people. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, the tenth largest city in the EU with about two million people.
The Kingdom of Romania emerged when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were united under Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza in 1859. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared on 9 May 1877, and was internationally recognized the following year. At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. Greater Romania emerged into an era of progression and prosperity that would continue until World War II. By the end of the War, many north-eastern areas of Romania's territories were occupied by the Soviet Union, and Romania forcibly became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact.