These days
\npublic gatherings are forbidden due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Romanians
\nstill remember the University Square phenomenon. It happened 30 years ago in
\nBucharest, months after the anti-communist revolution of 1989. The phenomenon
\nwould forever mark Romanian society, becoming a milestone in anti-communist
\nresistance. Misunderstood at the time by a society that had been for decades
\nstruggling with totalitarianism, the phenomenon produced a major social rift,
\nwhich, despite the change of perception over the years, is still present to
\ndate. On April 22, 1990, thousands of people disgruntled with the political
\ndevelopments in the country gathered in University Square in central Bucharest
\nand declared it the first area free of neo-communism. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The protest was
\ntargeting Ion Iliescu and other officials of the Romanian Communist Party who had
\ntaken power in their grip after the revolution. A few dozen people completely
\nblocked the square, and the movement rapidly gained momentum after Ion Iliescu
\nlabeled participants as hooligans. Backed by right-wing parties, the movement
\nstarted in the election campaign for the first free elections in Romania, and
\nlasted 53 days. It was violently repressed by a raid of miners brought over
\nfrom a coal-mining site in southern Romania. The action was called a raid and
\nsparked harsh criticism from Western powers and part of civil society. Ion
\nIliescu and the new leftist party that won the election were accused of having called
\nand instigated the miners to attack protesters, who continued to voice their
\ndiscontent on a much lower scale. The accusations have been denied to this day. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Emil Constantinescu, a former professor at University of Bucharest, located in
\nUniversity Square, today labels the University Square phenomenon as a school
\nof democracy. Constantinescu, who became Romania’s President in 1996, claims
\nthe lawmakers at the time feared the power of truth and the people might gain
\nhope and start believing in ideals. Emil Constantinescu says the events of
\nApril, 1990 contributed to our Euro-Atlantic path, Romania 30 years on being a
\nmember of both the EU and NATO, part of the family of consolidated democracies.
\nWe are facing other types of difficulties, challenges and uncertainty, a lot of
\nsocial division and a new wave of hatred that has migrated from the street to
\nsocial media, the former President also warns. Rediscovering these moments of light
\nin the darkness could help us defeat not just those viruses that infect our
\nbodies, but also those that stain our minds, thus helping us understand that
\nonly together will we overcome adversities, Emil Constantinescu concluded.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated
\nby V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
30 years ago, after the fall of communism, Romania was facing social unrest in its transition to democracy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":85497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[39947,32197,32196,39946],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-85496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-emil-constantinescu","tag-ion-iliescu","tag-miners-raids","tag-university-square-protests"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n