The European Human Rights Court has ruled that Romania had the right to refuse to register a new Communist Party over its links to the legacy of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Romanian Communist Party
At the end of case that began six years ago, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on December 21 that authorities were within their rights to not authorize a political party because it had not dissociated itself from the former Romanian Communist Party.
The party was disbanded during the 1989 anti-communist revolt.
“This interference was provided for by legislation and had been aimed at protecting national security and the rights and freedoms of others,” the judges said in their ruling.
Ceausescu
The case was taken to the Strasbourg-based court after Romanian authorities ruled that the applicants had not dissociated themselves from the Communist Party led by Ceausescu, which presided over a repressive regime, with scant regard for democratic or basic human rights.
The Bucharest Court rejected the application to register the party in 2014 and the judgment was upheld by the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
Romanian courts found that the proposed political agenda for the new Romanian Communist Party had elements which contravened Romanian laws and there was a risk of undermining democratic values.
Conflicts
The plaintiffs took the case to the European Court of Human Rights in 2015. They disagreed with the claims that links to the former Romanian Communist Party ere “likely to generate conflicts within society”, judges said.
But judges ruled against them.
The European Court’s decision comes as Romania marks 32 years since former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was toppled and executed after a hasty trial.
The revolt began in the Timisoara on December 15 when people protested the forced deportation of pastor Laszlo Toekes. The uprising spread to the rest of the country. Ceausescu fled.
Uprising
Some 1,116 peopled died during the uprising and more than 4,000 were injured according to official figures.
The kids that never grew up. Romania remembers the children killed during the 1989 revolution
