Introduction in the Romanian politics - part I - the Bloody Revolution

It's time.

^{"All political parties are compromised"}

Motivation: I need to write about this or I'll burst

I have thought a long time if I should start a series of blog articles dedicated to something I am involved in (as an active citizen, not a party member), something that is constantly bothering me and is recently driving me nuts. My personality is that of a "doer", I like to see things either done or at least, clear dedication towards resolving that issue. My formation is that of an honest man. I can't stand theft, I can't stand the lack of involvement and vision in politicians and I can't stand treason. The latter I hate in a very special way because under the shadow of the greatest nationalists alive, there are hidden snakes, slimy bastards who would sell the last acre of land for influence, power and a "get out of jail free" card.

In order to be able to further talk about politics and what is happening here, now, especially in the European context (we are not the only fools to think we can do it by ourselves) I need to go around the bush and bring you to the 0 moment, 1989, the moment when democracy should've kicked in. There are details that when put into context can explain how the fuck it all went bollocks from one point onward.

The 90's were a very important part of our recent history because that's where everything that mattered happened. That's where the opportunity was seized, that's when democracy failed. Oh, democracy. You little beautiful girl, looking so much like a desert mirage, we always run to catch you but you are always one step forward. Or maybe you are like your uglier sisters, just a utopia, a perfect, round thought, impossible to apply in the real world.

That decade defined the fact that we will surely take longer to get back in line with all other, developed, European countries. Now, after almost 30 years, we are still struggling to do that, we are still trying to find our way and we are still trying to get rid of the bad spawns of the weeds that took power in those shady years.

My generation, the one who was believed to be the one that will be able to collect all the goodies that our parents (the sacrifice generation) will provide for us, is a mix of feelings, a mix of education levels and a mix of country lovers with nationalists, while a big chunk of it decided to cross the borders in search of an easier alternative - better pay, better housing, better civilisation and most important, mutual respect. Rarely in Romania, the keen observer will be able to notice mutual respect between people of different opinions but still Romanians.

From communism to democracy: The not-so-well staged coup

We decided to have that Revolution in the middle of the fucking winter. I was too young to remember a lot (4) but still. I recall the day my mom came to pick me up from kindergarten; she was crying. The thing that was floating in the air for a long time already, officially started that day.

Also, I recall that weird exclamation of my parents that night, while watching TV: "They killed him!". It was a mix of feelings I guess. On one side you were happy to see Ceaușescu dead and on the other, you couldn't help thinking "Why the fuck did they had to shoot him?". I mean really, the guy was more than 80 years old, suffering from diabetes and I think he smelled like cancer from a mile away.

^{Romanian Presidents in the modern era: Ceaușescu, Iliescu, Constantinescu, Băsescu, Iohannis}

Apart from all the international influences that the Romanian Revolution of 1989 had, this was a battle for the bone. Like dogs fighting for one, giant, dinosaur bone, the second line of communists stepped in, in 1989, physically eliminating their predecessor. As they were about to seize power, it was normal to kill the only one who would demask them since day one. The style was a little more brutal than the one Bolsheviks had when they were deciding that you were of no more use. Ceaușescu stepped in after Gheorghiu Dej, who, developing a certain, aggressive kind of cancer after a Moscow visit, decided to drop dead. Funny thing about mister Dej is that he was SO irradiated during that visit (though officially is recorded as a normal, cancer death) that other 3 out of the 4 bodyguards he had, developed the same type of cancer and died quite fast themselves too. Funny story eh?

But the guys that came to power in 1989 were a different kind of breed. They were so bloody that they staged a fast trial and a fast execution. I mean literally, after the trial, they took them out in the courtyard of the military base they were in (Ceaușescu and his wife) and shot them. Both of them. Oldschool. I'm still amazed they didn't use rocks.

The guy that was there videotaping the thing (I explain below who he is and why was he allowed to do it) mentioned that he didn't even get the chance to look for a power outlet as his camera was running low on battery. That's why the video is so shaky and so incomplete: he had to run from the trial room, where he was 5 minutes before, to the place of the execution as they carried it almost instantly.

So these guys, driven by their lust for money and power, they seized the moment with the most personal thoughts in mind. They treated the country like their own backyard and got it organised in a modern pseudo-feudal way. It was the only thing they knew because the traditional communist ways they have been taught, were no longer valid: they had to open up private ownership and private enterprises. They had to allow multiparty existence. That was what the Revolution was all about. Just look at how fast they organised themselves in the video below, taken during the first hours after Ceaușescu fled. Generals, communist politicians and former dissidents, gathered around and took power.

In order to understand that our Revolution was an internal hoax, developed on the backbone of all the liberating revolutions under the Red Curtain, it only takes a few minutes. The curious reader can find out that:

• the guy who videotaped all the moments we have from those days, later became the owner of the most succesful television group (later sold to CME international group) - Adrian Sârbu was there since Ceaușescu fled in his helicopter, later moving to Târgoviște, the small town where the dictatorial couple was apprehended, trialed and later killed. He was brought there as a "democratic card" from the people who took power, thinking that videotaping the crucial moments of the coup will later serve them in order to show "how transparent everything was"; funny thing is that this guy, Sârbu, kept a lot of the important videos to himself (especially the ones that would incriminate the people that took power then) and only gave a few to the press. Now, he takes them out of his closet one by one as he is, for years now, either under trial or in prison, for different bribing files he added to his life, later, as a mass-media mogul.
• the guys that took power in those moments, seized it and went to the people saying that they will only hold it in order to be able to keep the country's functionality, until the first free and democratic elections; that happened in May 1990, 5 months after the ending of the Revolution and it ended with the same guy (Ion Iliescu) being elected with a majority of more than 85% - both because the people were so dumb and because they rigged those elections easily (they had the absolute power at that moment).
• the ones that seized power and were in the room in the above movie, coagulated in what was first the Front of the National Salvation (such a communist name); this was a provisory structure, both legislative and executive, that was supposed to bring political and administrative stability until the first free elections; for the 1990 elections, contrary to their vows during the winter, they re-coagulated in a political party, with Ion Iliescu in the role of the people's saviour - disgusting. The party had the same name as the organisation that took power during the last winter - FSN - all the communists that survived 1989 got inside the party ASAP.
• in the above short clip, there is a clear statement of one of the generals, when debating over the name that the organisation should take; he clearly states that the name should REMAIN "the Front of National Salvation" as it has been acting under that name for at least 6 months. SAY WHAT?!

The Revolution brought change to Romania. It had ended a long period of dark communism, paving the way for the communists waiting in line, to take power through their new party: FSN. This pseudo-party has to be remembered in the virtue of this series of articles I'm trying to make, as from this soviet-red coagulation, the socialist branch of the so-called "democratic" parties of Romania, spawned in time. This is important because they are the ones in power even now, as I write all of these.

Multiparty succession: Second line stepping in

One of the first things that the others did in the territory was to restart the Historical Parties that were put behind bars in 1948, when communists came on tanks from Moscow, together with some pretty big military formations. The restart of those parties was the only decent thing that happened during those years, but now, when we think about it, it was not like the new people in power could've kept them illegal.

^{Getting from the Only Party to Multiple Parties, through the Revolution}

The National Democratic Peasants Party formed immediately in 1989. 28th of December to be exact. After 41 years of illegality (which translated to hard prison for some leaders), they were able to gather and start discussing what there was to do in that raped Romania. Their former leader died in prison but the guy that was Secretary of the Party in '48, Corneliu Coposu, was still living, in spite of the years he spent behind bars. So they revolved around his figure to build the new political party. They were very clear in recruiting their members and were paying attention not to include people that were part of the former Communist Party (though more than 50% of the population was) or had anything to do with the communist structures of power. Their candidate that was supposed to wrestle Ion Iliescu, was Ion Rațiu, a well-educated guy, born in a Romanian aristocratic family, who was forced to leave the country for more than 40 years.

The National Liberal Party gathered a little bit later, in the end on 1990 and the liberals, who were also banned in 1948, founded the new party with the help of Radu Câmpeanu; he was part of the Liberal Youth and manifested against communism around 1948. For that, he stayed in jail for around 8 years and fled to France for more than 30 years in the 1950's. He never stood a chance in the elections of May 1990 when Ion Iliescu, the one in charge of the Front of the National Salvation blew him in the poles.

The Democratic Party was not a historical party. It just appeared in 1990 as an initiative of the "young, undeclared former communists". The central human figure around which the Party was formed was Petre Roman the son of Walter Roman. Though Petre (the son) was pretty young a posed as a head of the youth of the revolutionary forces in 1989, we must not forget who his father was. The link on Walter Roman will reveal the real Bolshevic that guy was: joined the communist movement in Spain after being schooled in Moscow and apart from the fact that in 1948 he literally came on the Soviet tanks to "liberate" Bucharest, there are clear documents pointing to the fact that he pleaded to make Transilvania (one of the Romanian provinces) an independent state, guaranteed by the Soviet Union. So his son, became Prime Minister under the rule of Ion Iliescu, right after 1989. What a coincidence! Remember this guy. He is going to stay with us, in my little story, until the 2000's.

Last of the parties formed then that deserves nominalisation here, as it ran for some years without dissolving and having some good scores in the future elections, was the Greater Romania Party, led by the psychotic Corneliu Vadim Tudor. Though not having a function in the power instalments of the communist regime, Corneliu was a "house jester" as we call these guys. Just look at the video below, dating sometime from the communist years, how strongly he recites the poem HE MADE for the dictatorial couple. You don't have to know the Romanian language in order to feel the licking of the butts that he is doing there.

Even now, after some years after his passing (yupi!) this guy is regarded by a lot of older people, as a "walking encyclopedy" - like that is something to be proud of. He was a total fool, learning by hard a lot of dates in order to look serious and professional but with the back spine of a worm that shadows himself under the hood of aggressive nationalism. In his final years, he became a totally delusional character, making appearances in tabloid shows all around the Romanian mass-media. A disgrace but one on which I'll come back again in future articles of this series as he almost got into the seat of the President.

Conclusion: a chaotic rule

Those were the events and the main characters that stole the Revolution of the Romanian people in 1989 and they are the main cause of the issues we have now in all the sectors of the society: politics, education, social empathy etc. The model they implemented in those first moments laid the foundations of more bloody events (in order to stay in power) and of the scam of the political class. Romania is now ruled by the political mutations of these guys and their acolytes and the main problem is that for almost 30 years now, they managed to make and modify the laws in order to suit their needs.

Thanks to anybody interested enough, who managed to read until this end.

Disclaimer: all the photos (individual or in collage) in this article were taken from different websites (all linked in the pictures). None of them is mine but represents common photographic ownership of the Romanian people.