The Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism and the Memory of the Romanian Exile (IICCMER) announces the launch of the national campaign „Communist Nostalgia Barometer”, within which it will monitor the manifestations and public acts of „rehabilitation” of communism, according to Agerpres.

„IICCMER observes the manifestation of an insidious tendency to rehabilitate communism through the transformation of its symbols into content intended for entertainment consumption; under the pretext of entertainment and freedom of opinion, such manifestations are primarily aimed at young people, undermining their trust in democracy, through the promotion of a simplified and positive version of Ceausescu period,” IICCMER said in a press release sent to Agerpres on Thursday.

According to the source, from February 1, IICCMER will launch the „Communist Nostalgia Barometer” Program for monitoring public demonstrations and acts relativizing the criminal nature of the communist regime. Public demonstrations, cultural and scientific productions, entertainment and commercial initiatives the origin of which is „the intention of promoting, instrumentalizing, revising or concealing the criminal nature of the communist regime” will be monitored.

The results of the monitoring will be published in the form of an annual report, the content of which is intended to be the basis of some educational tools addressed mainly to high school students and not only, the release says.

„IICCMER’s intention is not to invent supposed ‘enemies of democracy’, but to understand where they come from and how the dangers to it manifest themselves. Such a project cannot be one of ‘condemning’ communism, because IICCMER does not have such attributions and no instruments as such. What IICCMER does is to provide arguments and grounds to never forget that the communist regime produced criminal effects throughout its existence,” said the executive chairman of IICCMER, Daniel Sandru, quoted in the press release.

According to the IICCMER, the „Communist Nostalgia Barometer” follows the example and initiative of other organizations and institutions around the world, whose goal is to combat anti-semitism and strengthen democracy.

Agerpres