35 years since the Proclamation of Timișoara
The Proclamation of Timisoara was a watershed moment in the development of the Romanian democracy
Steliu Lambru, 24.03.2025, 13:21
The months that followed the Romanian revolution of December 1989 were mired in confusion, a state typical of a society in search of its defining values. The revolutionary elites of Timișoara, the place where the revolution ignited and then spread to the entire country after decades of communism, founded the so-called “Timișoara” society. It was this entity that drafted the famous Proclamation in March 1990. The Proclamation was a genuine civic manifesto, outlining the path towards democracy that Romania was fortunate to embark on. 35 years later, Ioan Stanomir, professor with the Political Sciences Department at University of Bucharest, says that the Proclamation is evidence that the majority of Romanian society had not managed to mentally escape from a past holding it hostage.
Ioan Stanomir: “The Proclamation of Timișoara was the brainchild of a segment of Romanian society. 1990 marks a turning point in Romanian history. It is the year of the Timișoara Proclamation, when the first free election was held on May 20,and also the year of the miners’ riots. Thus, it was supposed to usher in an era of hope, which ended abruptly with the rise of the National Salvation Front and the election of Ion Iliescu following a national referendum. From this point of view, the concept of the Timișoara Proclamation is limited in the Romanian context. What the Timișoara Proclamation claimed did not reflect the aspirations of the majority population. In this sense, the Proclamation is special, as it is both unique and pioneering. It is unique because it breaks away with the majority viewpoint, and pioneering because it references everything Romania will try to achieve over the next 35 years”.
The Proclamation of Timișoara called for a market economy, freedom of speech, a multi-party democracy and other human rights. Professor Ioan Stanomir says, however, that each of these concepts had different interpretations at the time.
Ioan Stanomir: “It depends on what we mean. Market economy did not mean a free market, but rather welfare compared to past hardships. Freedom did not necessarily mean pluralism, but freedom as envisaged by the National Salvation Front. Multi-party democracy did not mean free confrontation between several parties, but an adherence to this type of enthusiasm fostered by the National Salvation Front. The nuances are very complicated. Suffice it to look at the images of that time to understand, in fact, how poor, immature, and traumatized Romanian society really was”.
We asked Ioan Stanomir to what extent did the Proclamation of Timișoara contribute to the reforms that followed the 1989 revolution?
Ioan Stanomir: “It’s a Central-European document that could have very well been drafted by the Czechs, the Hungarians or the Poles. Romania was blessed to have its western part of the territory looking Westwards, and Timișoara thus managed to be a sort of vanguard of Romania’s modernization drive. Romania is a diverse country where every part has its own place. But by what it did in December 1989 and after that, Timisoara proved to be completely different from the rest of the country. And we must have tremendous gratitude for those, who by themselves, in isolation and ostracized thought about this future. We must be grateful to them and not to those who won the election. Those who won the election in May 1990 ruled for that moment, but those who wrote the Proclamation of Timisoara thought of those they couldn’t even see, but thought of them with love and consideration, of the future generations who would live in freedom.”
The most controversial point of the Proclamation of Timisoara was point 8, which called for the exclusion from the political life of the former communist leaders and officers of the former political police the Securitate. The phenomenon known as lustration was present in all the former communist countries. Here is Ioan Stanomir.
Ioan Stanomir:” Lustration in fact was the attempt of banning the former communist leaders from holding certain high-level positions and that also included officers of the former political police. And we have the answer to the question why lustration wasn’t possible, because lustration would have meant a rift between the Romanians and their most beloved son, Ion Iliescu. And Ion Iliescu is a personality complex enough to have lived several lives, you know. Ion Iliescu of 1990 is not the same Ion Iliescu who presided at Romania’s entry in NATO or at the beginning of the country’s European integration. However, the Ion Iliescu of 1990 was closer to Gheorghiu-Dej and Joseph Stalin than the balanced president in his last mandate.”
But what does the Proclamation of Timiosoara mean for the younger generation? Here is again Ioan Stanomir.
Ioan Stanomir:” It actually means the compass that must guide us. It means human dignity, pluralism, freedom, market economy, the West, patriotism. Let’s not forget patriotism; not demagogical patriotism, but the industrious, healthy patriotism of those who are working. We must regain this dignity of work but not in the horrible sense of the decades of communism. Because in communism, and maybe we should tell that to the people of this country, the working people happened to be oppressed by their leaders and the communist party, in its different forms, was not representing the people, which was actually supposed to represent. Work dignity is actually human dignity. All those working in a form of another, all those who are creative, must be respected. Respect to others is the foundation of democracy and the only alternative to barbarism, despotism and totalitarianism.”
The Proclamation of Timisoara in 1990 is the document without which we cannot understand Romania after 1989. It is part of the major acts of the history of Romanians in the 20th century in spite of the disillusionments that followed.
(VP&bill)
