From 2004 to 2007, the PD was the junior member of the governing Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), although according to many Romanian opinion polls of the time, it remained the most popular of the two parties.

[13] In advance of the 2004 elections, the PD joined forces with the National Liberal Party (PNL) to create the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), whose main purpose was to fight the all-dominating PSD.

Under the leadership of Petre Roman, the PD represented the reformist social democratic wing resulting from the split of the FSN in 1992.

Despite the clear ideological positioning, several observers did not notice substantial programmatic differences between the documents presented by the reformist and left-wing conservative currents that confronted each other during the national conference of the FSN in March 1992.

In the following years, the PD ran against Iliescu’s group, represented by the FDSN, PDSR and PSD parties, to win the same type of electorate linked to the centre-left.

The party made clear that its policy should be oriented towards the needs of the people, supporting a competitive socio-economic framework but focusing on social protection and security of citizens.

In the 2004 elections, Traian Băsescu’s pro-European and anti-corruption message reached mainly young people and residents of the urban areas and the north-west of the country, an electorate traditionally linked to the centre-right.

[25][26] Favored by Băsescu and the new president Emil Boc, the shift to the centre-right was officially realized in 2005, with the adoption of a political program explicitly based on popular and conservative doctrine.

The party also supported reforming the Romanian Constitution in order to bring about decentralization in administration and give greater power to the eight development regions.

[29][30] The party group which would have preferred to continue to uphold the social democratic ideology, represented by vice-presidents Cezar Preda and Radu Berceanu, was unable to present any candidacy for the presidency, as it was not supported by at least ten branches, as provided for in the Statutes.

According to his statements, the new programme was designed to adapt the official ideological positioning to the political line of action pursued by the PD in the years following the election of Băsescu.