The communist regime in Romania was "a criminal" one, "an executioner" of the Romanian people, which led to the moral and political destruction of the nation, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca stated on Thursday, underscoring that the birth and development of some seeds of new authoritarian or totalitarian regimes is not allowed and one must fight "with all the strength" against any form of illiberal, populist, revisionist or national-extremist politics.

The Prime Minister participated in the works of the 9th edition of the national conference called "The Romanian Communism."

"My presence within this event reflects two official capacities, on the one hand, I am here with you as the Prime Minister of Romania's Government, a European state which underwent the transition from the communist totalitarian regime to the Western-style democratic regime, which is now being prepared to be an integral part of the great family of Western democracies. The message we have to carry forward is that the institutions of the Romanian state are democratic institutions, firmly anchored in Romania's European and transatlantic path, the only way to social peace and economic welfare," Ciuca said.

He added, as the Chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL), that PNL is the only historic party which survived the horrors of the totalitarian regimes of Romania, it was re-established immediately after the fall of the communist regime and developed during the last three decades through constant participation in the country's governance.

"The Liberal vision is the opposite of the totalitarian vision over society. Between the Liberal democracy and totalitarianism there is an essential difference, instead, between Liberalism and democracy there is an indissoluble link, and the vision proposed by Liberal democracy coincides with the strategic vision of our membership to the European and transatlantic space. The message we have to carry on is that history cannot be forgotten. History is part of our identity and history teaches us what we must do to preserve the freedom of the human being, as the foundation of our existence within a democratic society and a European state," the Prime Minister argued.

According to him, the communist regime in Romania was "a criminal" one.

"Communism came in Romania through violence, together with the Soviet tanks. It was a regime without a foundation within the social structure, which had nothing in common with the structure of traditional culture and with the Romanian society's aspirations. The communist regime was a Soviet implant foreign to the Romanian society. Communism was imposed and placed as an expression of the Soviet occupation until 1958, later as a mark of the USSR's domination over the Romanian society. Like any totalitarian regime based on an ideology founded on an essential imaginary conflict, the communist regime in Romania was a criminal regime, it pursued the dissolution and uniformity into mediocrity of traditional Romanian communities, it flattened society, left it without an elite and intellectuality," the Prime Minister explained.

He brought to mind that the political, economic and intellectual elite of the nation was abolished and moved to political prisons, deported to Baragan and labor camps or directly to Siberia.

"For 44 years, communism systematically destroyed the fiber of the Romanian nation, it tried to destroy the ancestral belief, limited and directed the newly created elites, built successive repressive regimes and one-person dictatorships. It must be repeated with strength and conviction, so that the entire Romanian society can hear and understand: the communist regime in Romania was a criminal regime, because it sought to destroy the freedom and dignity of a nation through oppression, suspicion and violence. The communist regime in Romania was an executioner and the Romanian people represented its victim. Let us never forget this thing," PM Nicolae Ciuca highlighted.

In his view, there is the risk that the traces and memory of communism in Romania fade, and the effects would be "disastrous", because "forgetting evil makes evil triumph again."

He mentioned several initiatives unfolding at national level such as Romania's Museum of Communist Horrors, the Prison of Silence Memorial and the Educational Center on Communism of Romania, in Ramnicu Sarat, a project included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), as well as the National Museum of the Anti-Communist Revolution of December 1989, which will be built in Timisoara.

"All these will be museums which will honor the memory of the communism's victims and represent a testimony of the Romanian people's fight for freedom," Ciuca added, who also mentioned Romania's participation in the construction of the Victims of Communism Museum, in Washington D.C., the U.S.

According to the Prime Minister, the best defence against any form of authoritarianism is strengthening the constitutional democracy within a European democratic society. AGERPRES (RO - author: Alina Novaceanu, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)