Ion Iliescu's job interview explains how the former president passed from a “very open leader” to “a great disappointment”. “This division we have now is Ion Iliescu brand”

“All the editorial sessions with him were a delight. We wanted to SHe gets to lead the country ”, says Ion Iliescu a former colleague of his Technical Publishing House. But, the man emphasizes, in the dialogue with Hotnews, he found nothing from” Iliescu Director “in” Iliescu President “.

• Anton Popescu is 77 years old and was employed at the Technical Publishing House in 1986. The institution was then led by Ion Iliescu. There were colleagues for three years, until 1989.

Anton Popescu recounts that he has reached the Technical Publishing House through an acquaintance, who told him that “Comrade Iliescu wants to hire a man on the energy side”. He had graduated from the Faculty of Energy, but also that of philosophy. So he considered his career to be the editor.

He was 38 years old when he met Ion Iliescu, who was then leading the publishing house. He entered his office and the first question he asked was: Are you a party member?

“In a week it made me a party member”

“I was not and I did not have this desire, to become a party member. In the old days, if you were not a party member, you could not work in publishers. He said that he could not be otherwise and put his hand on the phone and called Mrs. Suzana Gâdea to solve it.”

Suzana Gâdea was the president of the Council of Socialist Culture and Education between 1979 and 1989.

Then followed a whole route, from Iliescu to Gâdea, and finally to the secretary responsible for propaganda in Bucharest, Nicolae Croitoru. “He is not a party member? Well, we do it,” recalls the pensioner that they were saying on the phone.

“And in a week it made me a party member. There were all kinds of checks to be a party member, and they made me in a week,” says Popescu. Immediately after, he was employed.

Anton Popescu confesses that he knew who Ion Iliescu was when he decided to work at the publishing house led by him. “I knew Iliescu. I knew what he did, that he was in youth, then in Timisoara, then he reached Iasi, then sent him to the water and landed at the Technical Publishing House, because Ceausescu considered him a man who can take his place.”

“About the world liked it”

Anton Popescu sometimes visited Iliescu to him in the office, when he went to work with the secretariat. Each time he came in, he found him reading Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party in Russia.

“I understood very well with him. He was very nice to us. I was leading a very free life to the rest of the activities in the country. I had the program quite Lax, we could reach 9-9: 30 at work. We leave at 14:00. If you had work, you could take your manuscript and work from home.”

However, Ion Iliescu respects the program. “He came every morning at 8:00 and was the first to open the office.”

“I was once in the famous elevator at the Scânteii House with a few colleagues and he tells us:” The brothers already work in communism “, that we had the program (no relaxed). He did not agree with the program, but he did not tell us,” says Anton Popescu.

“He was a very open leader. All the editorial sessions with him were a delight, at least for me. I was coming from a very strict environment, where I was on the back. Here I felt like a freedom. And we wanted to get to lead the country. About the world liked it.

“And for me it was hope”

Popescu tells that the whole publishing house saw the “continuation” of the dictatorial regime, instead of Nicolae Ceausescu, “but it would have been much more human and lighter” than the former communist leader.

“When the revolution happened in 1989, we were glad that our boss came. We all said” How good! “.

The reality, however, was different. “No, no, no,” says today, asked if he finds similarities in Iliescu's behavior as a publisher and the country president.

“And for me it was hope, which turned into a great disappointment. It was great hope, great,” says Anton Popescu.

“After the president was changed and became, those who were against him became the greatest admirers, and I, who sympathized with him, realized that he pulled us on January 22. I was with his wife when I saw on television that he made fun of us. Then I perceived him: harsh.”

On January 22, 1990, Ion Iliescu announced that the National Salvation Front will run for May elections.

“This division we have now is the Ion Iliescu brand”

After 1990, Anton Popescu has never seen Iliescu with good eyes before.

“I had a kind of endeavor, not even hatred, but I couldn't consider someone to do so harm to this country. This thing with the mining has been composed. It has broken the image of the country, and even now we endure the effects of that division. This division we now have is Ion Iliescu.

“What happened to the miners was of an abjection without notice, even how it took power to the Revolution was an abjection without notice. We thought the revolution was going forward, but he met Petre Roman and they were preparing,” the man recalls.

“He was always informed all the time of everything that happens, just before Ceausescu's escape with the helicopter,” he adds.

The moment he felt disgust. “I didn't say anything”

On March 3, 1990, Anton Popescu and other colleagues from the publishing house went to the headquarters of the provisional committee of national union to congratulate Iliescu on his birthday. The moment is described by Popescu and on his Facebook page.

“He received us beautifully, he embraced us and a colleague asked what will happen to the other parties. I was already changed, I went to see directly what the skin can,” he says about the meeting with the former president.

He does not remember the exact words, but “he said in a way that he has to get rid of this confusing opposition”-Liberals and peasants. “I realized that I did not take into account the opposition. I felt disgust. I didn't say anything, I realized and I left. He always acknowledged that he was a man on the left.”

Today, Anton Popescu states that “I'm not sorry about him”, but he recognizes the connection they have acquired in the three years, as colleagues. “I forgave him, but I cannot forget the great errors he made and for which the situation of Romania is not the one to be,” concludes the man.