The first democratic leader of Romania with an exciting legacy of disagreement

Ion Ellisco, a character that intertwines with the loud birth of modern Romania, died at the age of 95.

It was a professional politician formed the transition of the country from communism to democracy, and the lighthouse of hope was both and an exciting presence in Roman policy.

His death on August 5 represents the end of the life he spent at the heart of some of the most exciting moments in Romania.

“To understand ILIESCU, you must realize the complexity of the 1990s,” says political analyst Tudor Tita.

“He was neither a simple hero, nor a direct evil. He embodied the contradictions of a struggling country in order to re -invent himself while haunted his past.”

ILIESCU rose to the lead amid the chaos of the December 1989 revolution, when decades of Nicolaee Celesescu referee reached a sudden and violent end.

Initially, the man who would lead Romania to a new democratic era was soon, Ellisco’s legacy soon became more complicated.

His leadership directed the nation during its early fragile years of democracy and eventually integration with NATO and the European Union, which are achievements that many of his fixed hand are attributed.

However, Tudor Tita explains: “His presidency was also distinguished by moments of the Romania collective memory – the suppression of protests in 1990, violent mines, and its clear bounds to the complete collapse of ancient communist structures. These events have left this shadow.”

Elizco was born on March 3, 1930 in the town of Danube Olaytira, studied engineering in Moscow, Russia, during the era of Stalin, as it became active in the political circles of Roman students.

His time in the Soviet Union will later rent speculation-he has never proven-that he had relationships with high-level communist figures, including Mikhail Gorbachev.

After returning to Romania, Elizco rapidly rose within the Communist Party, and held positions in advertising and youth policy.

But his reformist tendencies eventually made him a target for Siaoshisco, who was marginalized by the Upper Party ranks. By the eighties of the last century, Iliescu was out of politics and worked as a director of a government academy publishing house.

Some viewed his appearance during the 1989 revolution, which lasted from 16 to 25 December and saw more than 1,000 people as an opportunist, but for others, it was a stable presence in chaos.

As a leader of the National Salvation Front (FSN), a political organization formed during the revolution, Elisco has become the temporary president of Romania and supervised the rapid dismantling of the CEAUSESCU system.

On Christmas, Nicolae Celesescu and his wife were executed by shooting after a two -hour military base.

In 1990, he won the first Romanian democratic elections in more than 50 years with 85 % of the vote. But the campaign was marred by misleading information and propaganda alignment with the state against liberal competitors.

Later that year, Iliescu faced increasing protests from students and opposition supporters. His joint call to miners to go to the capital to “restore the regime” have led to days of brutal violence in the streets known as mining workers, during which dozens were injured and many of them were killed.

He served another full period after winning the 1992 elections, and then returned to a final presidency between 2000 and 2004.

Disrepted years followed the revolution. The attractive and dangerous deep and dangerous figures, dating back to the Communist era, continued, and the presidency of Elisco was widely characterized by corruption.

Critics argue that its frequency in reforming the judicial system completely or facing the legitimacy of Securitate – the frightening secret police – allowed the culture of impunity to be rooted.

After more than three decades of the revolution, Romania is still struggling with political corruption and is still one of the poorest and most corrupt members of the European Union – some of which dates back to Ellisco’s rule.

His last years in office witnessed progress in the western integration of Romania – including NATO membership and the closure of the European Union joining talks. There were also market reforms, which allowed small companies to open, and Romania adopted the first democratic constitution in 1991, which still form the country today.

But Iliescu remained a stumbling from its role in the bloodshed in the early 1990s.

In 2017, crimes against humanity were officially charged with both the 1989 revolution and 1990. Legal procedures lasted for years without a solution.

After step down, Iliescu remained a respectable figure within the Social Democratic Party (PSD), as he was eventually appointed as an honorary president.

He has greatly withdrawn from public life in his last years, but sometimes published a political comment on his personal blog. He congratulated his final entry, in May 2025, President Nicosur Dan on his electoral victory.

Tita Tita says that Ion Ellisco is building a democracy of Romania, but he was “a ruthless politician who was not afraid to incite violent conflicts between the competing parts of society.”

“As politically, Iliescu was harsh, skillful and always with the eye to history.”