romania after ceauşescu

Demonstrations and first elections in may 1990.

In May 1990, the University Square in Bucharest was filled with protesters. The first free elections were on the stairs and the hope of a new life freed from Ceauşescu and communism was alive. A democratic revolution.
I photographed the election in a small rural town near Bucharest, I forgot its name.

The election brought Ion Iliescu to power by overwhelming majority. Since then he has been charged with crimes against humanity by being responsible for the lives of hundreds of people who died in connection with the Romanian revolution. He himself belonged to the political elite under Ceauşescu and has since been accused of enriching people from the old regime, among others persons from the secret police Securitate. So maybe the Democratic Revolution was nothing more than a palace coup. Today, despite membership of the EU, Romania remains one of Europe’s poorest and most corrupt countries.