A tribute to Corneliu Coposu
The former Christian Democratic leader Corneliu Coposus life and work are commemorated 24 years since he passed away
Roxana Vasile, 12.11.2019, 13:51
The poems created by Corneliu Coposu in prison and written 17 years later, when he was released from communist prisons, have been brought together in a book launched Monday night in Bucharest, as part of a gala named after the celebrated Romanian politician. The event marked 24 years since the death of this anti-communist dissident, who was the leader of the Romanian Peasants Party until 1947. The President of the Romanian Association of Former Political Prisoners Octav Bjoza, spoke about Corneliu Coposus moral uprightness and about the role model he was for the Romanian society:
Octav Bjoza: “It was very difficult to get close to him, but 2 or 3 times I had the chance to talk to him briefly. The last time was 4 or 5 months before he left for the last surgery in Germany. Do you know what he told me? Mr Bjoza, he said, I would like to see the members of Parliament battling for their strategies and programmes, and even ideologies, but after they leave Parliament I would like to see them together, going out to a concert, a play, a beer, or a football match. But these people… they hate each others guts, Mr Bjoza. Im sorry, but I find this unacceptable.
Corneliu Coposu served time in the most terrible communist prisons: in Vacaresti, Jilava, Pitesti, Malmaison, Craiova, Aiud, Poarta Alba, the Danube-Black Sea Canal, in Gherla and Sighetul Marmatiei, and he was detained in harsh solitary confinement in Ramnicu Sarat between 1954 and 1962. During the 8 years spent alone in a cell, he spent his time praying, doing maths and writing poems, so as not to lose his mind.
In spite of terrible hardships, Corneliu Coposu never renounced his principles and constantly struggled to turn Romania from a Soviet satellite into a Western democracy. Born in 1914, the great politician was trained under another noteworthy statesman, the former prime minister Iuliu Maniu, whose political secretary Coposu was. He was involved in organising the anti-communist opposition at the end of World War II, and organised student protests against the communists.
In 1947 Coposu was arrested and detained without a trial. When released, the communist regime asked him to collaborate in exchange for clearing his name, but Coposu turned down the offer. He re-established the National Peasants Party as a clandestine group and in 1987 he had it affiliated to the Christian Democrat International.
After the fall of communism in 1989, he brought together the opposition groups of the time into what was known as the Democratic Convention. He died in 1995, a year before the Convention won the local, parliamentary and presidential elections in Romania. Of Coposus 3 key goals, namely Romanias joining the European Union, NATO and the restoration of the monarchy, only the latter was not achieved.
(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)
