In Romania, the first president in the democratic history of the country, Ion Iliescu, has died. This is reported by the state TV company TVR with reference to the Romanian government. Iliescu was 95 years old.
In 1989, Iliescu was one of the leaders of the protestations against the power of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. As a result of the revolution, the communist regime in Romania fell and Ceausescu was executed. Already in the first days after the coup, he led the newly formed National Salvation Front (FNS), which took over the administration of the country.
Iliescu was elected Romania’s first free presidential election in May 1990 with over 85 per cent of the vote. Iliescu was compromise political leader of every description: to some, he was stabilization influence; to others, he was simply a man who arrived to inherit old regime’s institutions. He was the president until 1996 and was then re-elected in 2000, remaining in power until 2004.
Although Iliescu has gone down in history as the ‘father’ of modern Romanian democracy, in 2017 Romanian authorities charged Iliescu with crimes against humanity for his role in the crackdown on anti-government demonstrations immediately after he came to power in June 1990, in which between six and several dozen people were killed, according to various estimates. The case was closed several years later on procedural grounds and Iliescu was never brought to trial.
