Heavy files from the first years after the Revolution will be declassified, including those regarding mining and the “Blind Sunday” elections. Oana Toiu's announcement
The files regarding the first elections in Romania's post-December history, mining and King Michael's visit to the country in the early 1990s will be declassified, the head of Romanian diplomacy announced Thursday evening, according to which it is, in total, more than 5,300 diplomatic files from the archives of the ministry she leads.
“We are declassifying more than 5,000 diplomatic files from the first years of transition from the archives of the MAE (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no). The elections of May 1990, the mining events, the visit of King Michael, the correspondence with the USSR – all these are coming out of the drawers where they have been for over 30 years and will be public”, wrote the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oana Ţoiu, in a message published on her Facebook page.
The first presidential elections in post-communist Romania took place on May 20, 1990, an event that remained popularly known as “the Golden Sunday elections”. The May 20 elections were won by the FSN (National Salvation Front) with 67%, and Ion Iliescu was elected president with 85% of the votes, with a huge turnout of 86%.
“The documents about how Romania's foreign policy was reset after 1989 belong to history, to researchers, to society. Not to the drawers in the basement,” she said.
According to Oana Țoiu, it is about 5,376 files, kept in 768 archive folders, occupying approximately 100 linear meters of shelf space.
“It is the largest batch of declassified diplomatic documents after those before 1989 and covers a turning point in our recent history,” added the head of the MFA.
She also mentions some titles of these files:
- “Reactions in the USSR to the Revolution of December 22, 1989”
- “German Reunification (1990)”
- “Bilateral relations in connection with ex-King Mihai”
- “Treaty of collaboration, good neighborliness and friendship with the USSR”.
These documents no longer have the status of state secret for over a decade.
According to the legislation on the protection of classified information, cipher materials and instructions on the state cipher, as well as documents on the headquarters and security of diplomatic missions and consular offices, are exempt from declassification, which will be evaluated separately.
Oana Țoiu specified that, starting from Thursday, April 30, the project of the Government Decision for the declassification of these files is in decisional transparency on the MFA website.
“How many questions remained unanswered about mining, the 90s, Romania's relationship with the West and the USSR of those times? How did our difficult transition from communism to dialogue with world powers look? We are shedding light on our right. Romanians have the right to truly know the history of Romania's transition. Too many things have remained unsaid for too long, unclear, and in the closed air of lack of information, conspiracies and mistrust grow. Transparency no longer it is only about the past, but about the lessons learned and the basis of collective memory on which we can build the future”, the head of Romanian diplomacy also wrote.
