Senate Speaker Tariceanu: Romanian citizens regained their democratic sight on May 20, 1990

Romanian citizens regained their democratic sight on May 20, 1990, although a part of the public opinion still insists to remember the first democratic elections under the ironic title of "The Sunday of the Blind Man" and all the Romanian political parties of today, even if they had a complex history afterwards, had their roots in the elections that took place two decades and a half ago, said the Senate Speaker, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu.

Photo credit: (c) ALEX MICSIK / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

"It's true that a part of the public opinion still insists to remember the elections that took place on May 20, 1990, under the ironic name of 'The Sunday of the Blind Man.' Only that, if we are to study the respective liturgical chapter more closely, we will see that it is, in fact, about healing, about a blind man who regains his sight. Indeed, Romanians were impeded for almost five decades to have their own freely-elected representatives in Parliament. The Romanian citizens regained their democratic sight on May 20, 1990," showed Tariceanu in his message on Wednesday sent to the symposium dedicated to the 25th anniversary since the first free elections in Romania after the anti-communist revolution of 1989, a message delivered by Senator Daniel Barbu.

In his message, the Speaker of the Deputies' Chamber, Valeriu Zgonea, said that the May 20 elections legitimated by vote the future institutions of the rule of law state and laid the grounds for the legislative political process that led Romania to join the European political and cultural space.

"The first Parliament of post-revolutionary democratic Romania also played the role of a constituent assembly, adopted a new Constitution and created the legislative framework needed for reforming of the Romanian...