Issue of the month

How can the Lustration law find meaning and efficiency 16 years after the Revolution?

Ruxandra Cesereanu,
author of books on Communism

     The law still makes sense, even after 16 years after the Revolution. It is true, nevertheless, that characters such as Ion Iliescu, who should have been ‘lustrated’ in 1990, cannot be lustrated anymore, as they have already retired from the public scene. But a psychosis may be created among the population, as many will perceive this as a witch-hunt. There is a misunderstanding of the law, as people do not understand that the ones subjected by the law are not the members of the Communist Party, but the party activists and the members of the state apparatus who still want to candidate to hold high state positions.

Teodor Baconschi,
state secretary for public diplomacy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

     The Lustration law should isolate only the direct exponents of Communist repression, namely those guilty of grave and systematic trespasses of human rights. It is clear that the form adopted by the Senate is excessive and virtually unconstitutional. It is important that the text should have nuances, that it should have a system of exceptions and that it should be fact-oriented, that is not to condemn in block certain professional categories.

Florian Mihalcea,
president NGO Societatea Timisoara, one of the pioneers of the law

     As long as those who this law is addressing have not stepped back from their public positions, it isn’t too late for this law to be approved. I don’t think that these kind of people can talk about democracy when they were the ones who made a totalitarian regime possible. They are in the Parliament and most of them are slowing down reform. There will be problems with the application of this law. After it is approved, senior figures will have to make a statement about their own responsibility during Communism and these examinations will take time. We support the idea that those occupying public functions, who will come under the Lustration law, can finish their mandates, because the law will be applicable from 2008. I believe that by 2010 we should know who cooperated with the Securitate.

Political analyst Stelian Tanase

     It is not a matter which opposes the power and the opposition, because, after all, neither Basescu is an enthusiast supporter of this law and some National Liberal Party (PNL) members are also worried about the effects this law might have upon them. The law has a chance to pass through the Chamber of the Deputies, but the question is in which form it will pass. Will the adopted form of the law be strong enough to cleanse the former nomenclature or will it be just be anemic, so that we can show Brussels that we have a lustration law?