Defense Minister Radu Miruță was forced to defend himself on Monday after he appeared to present former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu as a patriot.
“I didn’t express myself well,’’ he said backpeddling on an answer he gave in an interview to a question about Ceaușescu being a patriot.
“My aim was to dismantle arguments” that the former president, in power from 1964 until his execution in 1989, was a hero, he explained.
His clarifications come after the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes (IICCMER) asked the minister to publicly apologize to those who suffered during Ceausescu’s regime.
His remarks come at a time of confusion in Romania where some are nostalgic for the late communist leader and communism which ended in the 1989 revolution where more than 1,100 people were killed.
Polls show that 62.2% of people believe that Ceausescu was a good leader. ICCMER says the perception risks legitimizing and downplaying the abuses, shortages and terrors of the communist era and contributing to a distorted image of his dictatorship where thousands died and basic freedoms were denied.
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Romanians endured food and power shortages, there was tight restrictions on foreign travel abroad, and at home were spied on by the ubiquitous Securitate secret police.
The minister made the controversial statement during a television interview on Sunday where he implied that Nicolae Ceaușescu could be considered a patriot.
He said that in certain areas, Ceausescu developed industry using a Romanians workforce on the territory of Romania.
Minister of Defense, Radu Miruță: “The purpose was to dismantle the arguments of those who think he was patriotic”
“I didn’t express myself well, he said.
