Bucharest, Romania
Seventeen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Romanian President Traian Basescu this week officially denounced his country’s former Communist regime as “criminal and illegitimate.” It was the first time a Romanian head of state publicly criticized the Soviet-era system, and comes as the country prepares to join the E.U. Jan. 1. “The regime exterminated people by assassination and deportation of hundreds of thousands of people,” Basescu said. “Behind the socialist humanism was hidden the most profound contempt for people, for the individual.” Romania’s ousting of its Communists was less smooth than elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed on Christmas Day, 1989, but then a party of former top Communists took over.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
What should you be stockpiling for 'World War Three'?In the Spotlight Britons advised to prepare after the EU tells its citizens to have an emergency kit just in case
-
Carnivore diet: why people are eating only meatThe Explainer 'Meatfluencers' are taking social media by storm but experts warn meat-only diets have health consequences
-
Scientists want to fight malaria by poisoning mosquitoes with human bloodUnder the radar Drugging the bugs
