Making of Romania: the 1989 revolution and the road to democracy

After 1989, Romania had to go through a long and at times painful transition towards democracy. The legacy of over 50 years of communism rule could not be eliminated so quickly, but the country made some important steps in the meanwhile. By Alexandra Fodor Even before the execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, a group of Communists formed the National Salvation Front (NSF) and took control of the country. The figure who emerged as the new leader was Ion Iliescu, a Communist Party official who had fallen out of favor with Ceausescu in the 1970s. On 26 december 1989, the Council of National Salvation (CNSF) named Ion Iliescu president and abolished the most unpopular measures of Ceausescu’s regime, such as bans on abortion and contraception. Presidential and parliamentary elections were held on May 20, 1990. The elections were a success for Iliescu who won over 85% of the votes and for his party, the National Salvation Front which won two-thirds of the seats in Parliament (66, 31% of votes). After of the party's victory in the May 1990 elections, Petre Roman became prime minister and Iliescu president.

In April 1990, unhappy with the direction the country was heading towards, Bucharest protesters took to the streets. Iliescu denounced the demonstrators, led by students and university professors, as “hooligans” and in response called the Romanian miners to quash the protests. The miners also attacked the headquarters of several political parties and houses of opposition leaders. Later, President Iliescu expressed public thanks. A year later the miners were back in the capital demanding higher wages and better living conditions, and this eventually brought down the government. The economic decline accelerated during the 1990s. The Romanian Parliament drafted a new democratic constitution that came into force by the end of 1991. Iliescu returned to office in 1992 but in 1996 lost the presidency to Emil Constantinescu of the center-right Democratic Convention who promised to end corruption and to launch economic reforms. In the presidential elections of 2000, Iliescu returned to power, after victory over the far-right candidate Corneliu Vadim Tudor. The prime minister at the time, Adrian Nastase was accused of corruption, bribery, money laundering, trafficking influence and censorship. The nationwide referendum which was held in October 2003 approved major amendments to the constitution, in order to bring Romania's organic law into compliance with European Union standards. In 2004,