The National Salvation Front ( ro, Frontul Salvării Naționale, FSN) was the most important political organization formed during the
Romanian Revolution
The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred ...
in December 1989, which became the governing body of
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
in the first weeks after the collapse of the totalitarian
communist regime. It subsequently became a political party, the largest post-communist party, and won the
1990 election with 66% of the national vote, under the leadership of then-President
Ion Iliescu, who was elected with 85% of the vote.
Iliescu nominated again Petre Roman as the Prime Minister of the first cabinet formed after the first free and fair elections. After the fourth ”
mineriadă”, Roman was forced to resign. The controversy between the two national leaders was finalized in 1992, at the national Congress of FSN, when the party split in two: the
Democratic National Salvation Front
The Democratic National Salvation Front ( ro, Frontul Democrat al Salvării Naționale, FDSN) was a Romanian political party formed by former President Ion Iliescu and his supporters stemming from the National Salvation Front (FSN) on 7 April 1 ...
(FDSN), under the leadership of President Iliescu; and FSN, under the leadership of Petre Roman (in 1993, it was the renamed as the
Democratic Party (PD).
The National Salvation Front (FSN) founded by Iliescu and Roman was the common root of two of the largest active political parties in post-communist Romania: the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
(PSD) and the Democratic Party (PD, later the
Democratic Liberal Party, PDL, after the merger with a splinter group from PNL, the
Liberal Democratic Party, PLD). In 2014, the second party (the former PD; then PDL) merged with the ”historical party” National Liberal Party (PNL, founded in 1875, refounded in 1990), and ceased to exist.
History
Formation and rise to power
In March 1989 six prominent members of the
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that wo ...
(PCR) wrote an
open letter to
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Nicolae Ceaușescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He ...
that criticised his abuses of power and his economic policies. The so-called "
Letter of the Six" was circulated in the Western media and read on
Radio Free Europe.
In 1989, before the 14th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, two letters signed "National Salvation Front" began circulating. They were read on
Radio Free Europe on 27 August and 8 November.
The first letter had a number of questions about Ceaușescu's
mismanagement of the economy and
human rights violations
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
, while the second letter appealed to the Congress not to re-elect Ceaușescu.
[Deletant, p.290]
People flocked to the National Salvation Front (FSN) for a multitude of reasons ranging from religious oppression in members such as
László Tőkés and alleged mismanagement and marginalization of undesirables within the Communist party in members such as Ion Iliescu.
After the
Romanian Revolution
The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred ...
, the same name led to the question of whether the National Salvation Front (FSN) existed as an underground organization. According to
Silviu Brucan
Silviu Brucan (born Saul Bruckner; 18 January 1916 – 14 September 2006) was a Romanian Communist politician.
He became a critic of the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu. After the Romanian Revolution, Brucan became a political analyst.
Ear ...
, this was not the case, as the letters were written by Alexandru Melian, a professor at the
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...
, who had no connection to the leaders of the NSF.
This was contradicted by
Nicolae Militaru, who claimed that he, together with Ion Iliescu, led a clandestine National Salvation Front which asked Melian to write this appeal.
[Deletant, p.291]
The creation of the FSN was officially announced to the public by
Ion Iliescu in radio and TV addresses on 22 December 1989, after the overthrow of Ceaușescu. The FSN took power from the
communist authorities. Within four days, the FSN formed an interim government with Ion Iliescu being the president and
Petre Roman as the interim Prime Minister. The initial membership of FSN came from diverse backgrounds: intellectuals, students, army officers, but the leaders were mostly former Communist officials (see
List of members of the National Salvation Front Council).
[
]
Interim government
On 27 December, the FSN decreed the abolition of the one-party system and the calling of free elections.[Roper, p. 66] Shortly afterwards, two major political parties claiming to be the successors of the two most important pre-Communist Romanian parties, more specifically the National Peasants' Party (PNŢ) and the National Liberal Party (PNL), were re-founded and registered.
At first, the FSN announced that it would not be nominating candidates in the forthcoming elections.[ However, ]Silviu Brucan
Silviu Brucan (born Saul Bruckner; 18 January 1916 – 14 September 2006) was a Romanian Communist politician.
He became a critic of the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu. After the Romanian Revolution, Brucan became a political analyst.
Ear ...
then launched the concept of ''the big party'' and supported the transformation of the FSN into a political party. Some members of FSN, like Dumitru Mazilu, Mircea Dinescu, Ion Caramitru, Andrei Pleșu, Dan Hăulică, Gabriel Liiceanu, or Doina Cornea
Doina Cornea (; 30 May 1929 – 3 May 2018) was a Romanian human rights activist and French language professor. She was a dissident during the communist rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu.
She was co-founder of the Democratic Anti-totalitarian Forum of ...
resigned before FSN became a political party.
On 6 February 1990, the FSN, transformed itself into a political party, in order to be able to run in the upcoming elections. Except for a few newspapers, FSN had extensive control over the Romanian mass-media, particularly the state owned television company and the newly founded ''Adevărul
''Adevărul'' (; meaning "The Truth", formerly spelled ''Adevĕrul'') is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published du ...
'' newspaper.[
Anti-FSN demonstrations were mounted by the ]Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party
The Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party ( ro, Partidul Național Țărănesc Creștin Democrat, officially abbreviated PNȚCD) is a Christian democratic and agrarian political party in Romania. It claims to be the rightful successor o ...
(PNȚ-CD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) in late January and late February 1990, that degenerated into violence against state authorities. In turn, Iliescu called on the working class to support the FSN against what he noted as "fascist forces, trying to destabilise the country". This has resulted in what were named the first and second
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ea ...
Mineriads.
However FSN agreed to allow other parties to participate in the provisional government. The new governing body, the Provisional Council of National Unity
The Provisional Council of National Unity (PCNU; ro, Consiliul Provizoriu de Uniune Națională, ) was a provisional governmental body during the early 1990s in Romania. At that time, it was headed by Ion Iliescu of the National Salvation Fron ...
( ro, Consiliul Provizoriu de Uniune Națională, CPUN), still dominated by FSN, would run the country from early February 1990 until the elections.[
Another, much larger, demonstration (the ]Golaniad
The Golaniad ( ro, Golaniada , from the word ''golan'' meaning "hoodlum") was a protest in Romania in the University Square, Bucharest. It was initiated by students and professors at the University of Bucharest.
The Golaniad started in April 199 ...
) against FSN's participation in the elections was organised in April 1990 and lasted 52 days, until 13–15 June, when it was violently dispersed by the third Mineriad.[Roper, p.68]
First elected government
The FSN had strong support among the peasants and the urban industrial workers, while the PNL and PNŢCD had strong support among the intellectuals in urban areas.[Roper, p.67]
As popular anger was directly primarily at the Ceaușescu family, the FSN benefited from the institutional links of the disbanded Communist Party and needed no specific program in order to win the elections, being a catch-all party
A big tent party, or catch-all party, is a term used in reference to a political party's policy of permitting or encouraging a broad spectrum of views among its members. This is in contrast to other kinds of parties, which defend a determined ...
.
FSN and its candidate Ion Iliescu comfortably won the legislative and presidential elections on 20 May 1990, obtaining a majority in both the Assembly of Deputies and the Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
. Petre Roman remained Prime Minister, and its government started cautious economic reforms.
Breakup
After growing tensions between Iliescu and Roman, on 7 April 1992, Iliescu and many other members left the FSN and created the Democratic National Salvation Front
The Democratic National Salvation Front ( ro, Frontul Democrat al Salvării Naționale, FDSN) was a Romanian political party formed by former President Ion Iliescu and his supporters stemming from the National Salvation Front (FSN) on 7 April 1 ...
( ro, Frontul Democrat al Salvării Naționale, FDSN), which eventually developed to be the current Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
( ro, Partidul Social Democrat, PSD).
Petre Roman remained leader of the FSN. On 28 May 1993, the party was renamed Democratic Party – National Salvation Front ( ro, Partidul Democrat – Frontul Salvării Naționale, PD-FSN), before shortening its name to Democratic Party (PD) in 1998.
Legacy
The National Salvation Front (FSN) has had a major impact on post-1989 Romanian politics. The two parties that emerged from the National Salvation Front (FSN), more specifically the Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
(PSD) and the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL), the latter which ultimately merged into the National Liberal Party (PNL) in 2014, governed or participated in government coalitions from 1990 until today.
The former President Traian Băsescu
Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a conservative Romanian politician who served as President of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian Minister of Transport on multiple occasions between 1991 ...
entered politics as an FSN member and served as Minister of Transportation in several FSN governments. It is worth noting what Băsescu, stemming as a presidential candidate from the Democratic Party (PD), as part of the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), remarked rhetorically in a live TV debate with Adrian Năstase, stemming from the Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
(PSD), before the 2004 run-off presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The p ...
: "You know what Romania's greatest curse is right now? It's that Romanians have to choose between two former Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...
(PCR) members."
Election results
Legislative elections
Presidential elections
References
Bibliography
*Dan Pavel, Iulia Huia, <> O istorie analitică a Convenţiei Democratice, 1989-2000, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2003.
*Steven D. Roper, ''Romania: The Unfinished Revolution'', Routledge, 2000,
*Dennis Deletant, ''Ceaușescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania'', 1965–1989, M.E. Sharpe, London, 1995, .
{{Authority control
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1990 establishments in Romania
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Defunct socialist parties in Romania
Democratic socialist parties in Europe
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Political parties disestablished in 1993
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