Romanian president says the justice system must find the truth about the 1989 Revolution

President Klaus Iohannis said on Monday, December 16, during a speech in the Parliament, that the Romanian authorities have waited too long to find the truth about the 1989 Revolution, and that the justice system needs to solve this case and hold the guilty accountable.

“After 1990, there were various initiatives honoring the memory of those who died in December 1989. Streets were named after them, public monuments were built, commemorative events were organized. There’s one thing we haven’t done yet – we failed to find the truth about what happened during the anti-communist uprising of 1989,” Iohannis said during his speech at the special joint meeting of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies dedicated to marking 30 years since the 1989 Revolution.

He said that the Communist regime settled in Romania by force, and that “its collapse followed the same pattern: through crimes, abuses and breaking the law.” The Romanian Revolution of December 1989 put an end to “this long series of monstrosities” but more than 1,100 people had to die for this “anti-Romanian regime to disappear.”

Now, the justice system must find the truth about the 1989 Revolution and hold the guilty accountable. “The sacrifice of the Romanians who stood in front of bullets, tanks and the most terrible forms of torture, cannot remain without the answers to the fundamental questions that concern the Revolution. The Romanian state waited too long to find the truth, and this is a milestone for the Romanian justice. Finding the truth is a necessity for the victims and their descendants, for the Romanians, for our common future.”

Klaus Iohannis also said that no political party, group, entity or Romanian has the right to “deny the existence of this cardinal event for the democratic becoming of Romania.” He added that, as president of Romania, he firmly rejects any opinion that questions the existence of an anti-communist revolution in December 1989.

Klaus Iohannis' full speech is available here (in Romanian):

Senate president Teodor Melescanu, Chamber of Deputies speaker Marcel Ciolacu, prime minister Ludovic Orban, and other representatives of the parliamentary groups addressed the Parliament during the special joint meeting on Monday. Other members of the Government, former presidents, representatives of the Royal House and the Church were among the guests.

A series of protests and street demonstrations erupted in Romania in December 1989, the local civil unrest being part of the Revolutions of the same year that occurred in several countries. The Revolution in Romania began in Timisoara, spreading fast across the country, and culminating with the short trial and execution of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife on the Christmas day of 1989. The two were the last people condemned to death and executed in Romania.