Project banning former communist officials or informers from state positions submitted to Romanian Parliament

A project prohibiting the candidacy for major state positions, as well as the participation in official ceremonies, for dignitaries or officials who held positions in the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party or who collaborated with the political police, has been submitted to the Romanian Parliament.

The project, submitted by independent deputy and member of the reformist REPER Party, Andrei Lupu, modifies the emergency ordinance regulating access to one's Securitate file.

Currently, candidates are required to declare whether they have been a worker or collaborator of the Securitate, but there is no prohibition against candidacy, which made it possible for people like Ion Iliescu or Traian Băsescu to run and even be elected as presidents, according to a REPER Party statement cited by Digi24.

According to the initiators, the project comes as a result of Romania’s need to align with European values and prevent a regression of the political system towards authoritarianism.

"I submitted this project at a symbolic moment, when dozens of individuals, well-known to have served the former communist regime, will carry wreaths to the graves of heroes of the 1989 Revolution. This grotesque spectacle, where individuals who benefited from the communist dictatorship shed insincere tears at the graves of revolution heroes, deeply disgusts me. Their lack of shame must be publicly sanctioned, and I have done this by banning their presence at such official events. If they truly have remorse, they can express it privately, not with state money and in public, re-traumatizing the families of innocent victims. I used this occasion to request the verification of all those who will run for important positions in 2024 so that we can break away from the communist and Securitate past once and for all," stated Andrei Lupu.

"It is late, we should have done this since 1990, but Romanian society was captured by parties and politicians from the communist party and state apparatus," Andrei Lupu concluded.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos | George Calin)