Reformist Romanian party submits bill banning communist organizations and symbols
Lawmakers from the reformist center-right party Save Romania Union (USR) announced that they have submitted a legislative initiative aimed at banning communist organizations and symbols, as well as sanctioning communist propaganda.
The project is meant to stop a wave of content favorable to the totalitarian Nicolae Ceaușescu regime in Romania, primarily shared on TikTok. The bill provides for prison sentences and extends the current legislation that sanctions fascist and Legionary propaganda to also include crimes committed during communism.
The bill was initiated by USR parliamentarians Corina Atanasiu, Cristian Ghinea, Remus Negoi, and Narcis Mircescu.
“Nostalgia for communism is not harmless melancholy, but fuel for extremist currents that today promise 'order' at the price of our rights. We cannot build a prosperous future on a falsified history. Through this bill, we place barriers against the rehabilitation of a regime of terror and ensure that Romania remains firmly anchored in European values, far from the shadows of authoritarianism,” said Atanasiu in the press release.
The provisions of the USR bill include a prohibition for statues, statuary groups, commemorative plaques, or other signs that promote personalities representative of communist ideology or communist-era crimes in public places, except in museums.
The law also stipulates prison sentences, from 3 months to 3 years, for communist propaganda. Those who establish or join a communist organization risk 3 to 10 years in jail.
“Ceaușescu’s securists [members of the secret police] want Ceaușism without Ceaușescu, with themselves at the controls. Democratic and European Romania needs to defend itself against this aggression. Romanians who regret Ceaușescu are victims of still-present propaganda, of fantasies such as ‘reindustrialization’ or ‘by ourselves,’ perverse forms of Ceaușist stupidity,” said USR senator Cristian Ghinea.
In 2002, Romania outlawed organizations, symbols, and actions of a fascist, Legionary, racist, or xenophobic character, as well as the promotion of the cult of persons guilty of committing crimes against humanity or war crimes. No law currently covers the glorification of communist symbols in a similar fashion.
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