The Institute for Investigation of Communist Crimes and Memory of the Romanian Exile (IICCMER) announced that it has filed a complaint on Monday with the Prosecutor General’s Office against the MEP Diana Sosoaca for promoting the personality cult of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, convicted for genocide.

According to an IICCMER press release, the complaint concerns the commission by Diana Sosoaca of the offense of „promoting, in public, the personality cult of persons guilty of committing crimes of genocide against humanity and war crimes”, provided for and punishable by the provisions of Article 5 of OUG 31/2002 with imprisonment from 3 months to 3 years and the banning of certain rights.

On February 11, Diana Sosoaca delivered a speech in the European Parliament’s plenary where she recommended to her colleagues to develop foreign policy strategies on the model of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, saying that „No one has ever equaled him”.

IICCMER considers that the message conveyed by Diana Sosoaca in relation to Nicolae Ceausescu is likely to promote the cult of the latter’s personality, by presenting, with a clearly admiring character, his alleged qualities, those present being encouraged to take him as an example for his alleged abilities in foreign policy.

„The recent speech made by MEP Diana Sosoaca in the European Parliament plenary, in which she praises the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, is an offense to the memory of those who suffered under the communist regime and an affront to democratic values that Romania and Europe are sharing today. It is unacceptable that, 35 years after the 1989 Revolution, a symbol of a repressive past should be transformed, through populist and demagogic rhetoric, into a model of leadership. Such an apologia of dictatorship not only falsifies history, but also undermines the efforts of Romanian society to build a future based on freedom, justice and respect for the fundamental rights of citizens. Nicolae Ceausescu was not a ‘visionary’, as this kind of toxic discourse tries to present him, but a tyrant who subjected his own people to a policy of isolation, fear and poverty,” says the executive president of IICCMER, Daniel Sandru.

The Institute argues that the condition that the attitude of admiration and promotion of the former dictator is systematic is also fulfilled, in the sense that similar ideas have been promoted in the public space on other occasions.

An example is the press release of November 1, 2024 of the S.O.S. Romania Party, which announced the organization of a „National Memorial Service in memory of the heroes of the nation”, at the Monastery of Plaviceni in Teleorman County, where the remains of the ruler Mihai Viteazul are found.

The memorial service was also held for Nicolae Ceausescu and Elena Ceausescu, „killed on Christmas Day, but also for the lifting of the curse that has been hanging over the Romanian people because of the traitors in our history”.

AGERPRES