Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu Dies at 95: The Neo-Communist Who Chained Romania to Its Past

Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu dies at 95 in a Bucharest hospital. To millions, he was the engineer-turned-apparatchik who stepped from the shadows on 22 December 1989, after the so-called Revolution, promised democracy, then unleashed miners, riot police and recycled party elites to keep real change at bay. So many Romanians will feel joy after this event.

To fully understand the joy, it’s enough to say Romanians set up a website where they could check if Iliescu died. The domain of the website, translated into English, is isiliescudead.lol Before his death, the content was a simple “no” followed by a very sad emoticon.

Groomed by the communist hierarchy in the 1960s, Iliescu resurfaced during the so-called Revolution as leader of the National Salvation Front. His televised assurances of freedom quickly morphed into a careful reconstruction of the old order, staffed by second-tier cadres and Securitate sympathisers.

Also, Iliescu was the one who ordered, without occupying any official position in the state, the killing of the couple who led Romania during communism – Ceaușescu. His order was followed by a so-called trial where a “popular tribunal” decided to execute Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu on Christmas Day. Hence, the saying about the Romanians who have a habit of killing their leaders during Christian holidays.

Hatred Against His People: University Square – First Blood in Free Romania

In April 1990, tens of thousands occupied University Square demanding pluralism. Iliescu dismissed them as “golani,” then on 13 Jun, the security forces fired on demonstrators, killing several and injuring hundreds. Prosecutors would later brand the crackdown a potential crime against humanity.

The Mineriads: Violence on Command

“Restore order,” Iliescu urged on national TV. Within hours, trains packed with Jiu Valley miners rolled into Bucharest, bludgeoning protesters, ransacking opposition HQs and terrorising journalists on 14–15 June 1990. Repeat raids in 1991 toppled his prime minister and cemented the term Mineriad as shorthand for state-sponsored mob rule.

Western governments issued rare diplomatic snubs, warning that Romania was jeopardising its post-revolution momentum. As neighbours enacted lustration laws and fast-tracked EU talks, Iliescu’s Romania lurched through half-reforms and a patchwork of opaque privatisations.

Controlled Democracy and the Old Guard’s Return

Iliescu’s tenure kept secret-police files sealed, shielded party networks and designed electoral rules favouring the FSN and its Social-Democratic heirs. Critics argue this “controlled democracy” entrenched corruption and delayed genuine market transformation well into the 2000s.

In 2019 and again in 2024–25, prosecutors charged Iliescu with crimes against humanity for the 1989 Revolution and the Mineriads. Hearings stalled; no verdict arrived before his too-long-awaited death, leaving victims’ families without closure.

Prosecutors have never finished the official investigation regarding the crimes committed during the 1989 events and after, during the neo-communist regime. Yet, the Romanian people won’t ever forget.

For those who braved tear gas in 1990 or the miners’ batons and bats, Iliescu personified a hijacked revolution. Their children still chant “Nu ne vindem țara! – We don’t sell our country!” at rallies, proof that Romania’s struggle over truth and accountability remains unresolved.

Verdict of History

Ion Iliescu’s passing at 95 ends an era but not the debate: Was he a stabiliser amid chaos or the architect of Romania’s delayed freedom? The nights when miners roamed Bucharest, the students beaten, the protesters or bystanders killed, and the hopes deferred weigh heavily against any claims of statesmanship. With his death, the reckoning he long avoided returns, this time to the court of collective memory.

Photo source: Wikipedia