Ion Iliescu (Romanian pronunciation:[iˈoniliˈesku]ⓘ; 3 March 1930 – 5 August 2025) was a Romanian politician and engineer who served as the first and the thirdPresident of Romania since thecountry's transition to democracy. He occupied the office from 1990 until 1996 and again from 2000 until 2004. Iliescu was also asenator for theSocial Democratic Party (PSD), which he founded and where he became the honorary president for the rest of his life.
Iliescu joined theRomanian Communist Party (PCR) in 1953 and became a member of its Central Committee in 1965. Beginning with 1971, he was gradually marginalised byNicolae Ceaușescu. He had a leading role in theRomanian Revolution, becoming the country's president in December 1989. In May 1990, he became Romania's first freely elected head of state. After a new constitution was approved by popular referendum, he served a further two terms, firstly from 1992 to 1996 and then secondly from 2000 to 2004, separated by the presidency ofEmil Constantinescu, who defeated him in1996.
In 2004, during his presidency, Romania joinedNATO. In April 2018, Iliescu was charged in Romania with committingcrimes against humanity by "approving military measures, some of which had an evidently diversionary character" during the deadly aftermath of the country's 1989 revolution. In 2020, a judge rejected the case due to irregularities in the indictment.[1][2] The indictment was remade; in 2023, the Court of Appeals approved a trial for it.[3] At the time of his death, he was the oldest living person to have been the Romanian president.
Ion Iliescu was born on 3 March 1930 inOltenița, a city in the Muntenia region of theKingdom of Romania.[4] He was the son of Alexandru Iliescu (1901–1945) and Maria Dumitru Toma.[5][6] His mother, ofRoma origin, abandoned him when he was one year old and married another man.[7][8][9]
His father was a railroad worker, trade unionist and member of theRomanian Communist Party (PCR), which was illegal at the time. In 1931, he represented the party at the 5th PCR Congress held in Gorikovo, nearMoscow, but did not return to Romania until 1935. In 1937, he was arrested for his political activism, which was considered subversive.[10][11][12] He served his sentence in Jilava prison (in 1939) and in the labour camps of Caracal and Târgu Jiu (from June 1940 to August 1944), where he came into conflict withGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who expelled him from the party.[12] In 1940, he married Maria P. Iliescu, with whom he had two children, Crișan and Mihai[8][11][9] Alexandru Iliescu died in 1945, when Ion was fifteen years old.[9]
His paternal grandfather, Vasili Ivanovici, was a Bolshevik Jew who fled the Russian Empire because he was persecuted by the Tsarist authorities. Around 1895, he settled in Oltenița and changed his name to Iliescu. He had four children (Alexandru, Eftimie, Aristița and Verginia).[10][13]
Ion Iliescu was raised by his paternal grandparents and stepmother, and in 1939 he was adopted by his aunt Aristița, a cook at the residence of communist activistAna Pauker, who helped him study in the Soviet Union.[9] During the years of the regime, he was often accompanied to official events by his stepmother, while details about his natural mother were only revealed in the 1990s.[9][8][11]
Ion Iliescu studiedfluid mechanics at theBucharest Polytechnic Institute and then as a foreign student atMoscow Power Engineering Institute. During his stay in Moscow, he was the secretary of the "Association of Romanian Students"; it is alleged that he metMikhail Gorbachev, although Iliescu always denied this.[14] However, years later, presidentNicolae Ceaușescu probably believed that there was a connection between the two, since during Gorbachev's visit to Romania in July 1989, Iliescu was sent outside of Bucharest to prevent any contact.[15]
He joined theUnion of Communist Youth in 1944 and the Communist Party in 1953, becoming a career politician from that point forward. He was nominated and elected to be the secretary of theCentral Committee of the Union of Communist Youth in 1956, and later elected to the Central Committee of theRomanian Communist Party in 1965. He also briefly served as the head of the Department of Propaganda, before taking the job of Minister for Youth-related Issues in 1967. In 1972, he was pressured to resign from this job, since Ceaușescu did not fully trust him and believed that Iliescu would be his successor.[14]
After this point, he was effectively sidelined from the national political scene yet retained his seat on the Central Committee of the Party; however Ceaușescu could not have him ousted from it until 1985 since he required a majority within the Committee to approve such a measure. Iliescu was demoted to vice-president of theTimiș County Council (1972–1974), and later president of theIași Council (1974–1979). Until 1989, he was in charge of the Editura Tehnică publishing house. After his removal from the Central Committee in 1985, theSecuritate (secret police) kept a closer watch on him, as he was openly in opposition to Ceaușescu's rule while serving on the Committee.[17]
On 22 December 1989, following Ceaușescu's escape fromBucharest, revolutionaries occupied several institutions in the Romanian capital, such as the PCR Central Committee building, the Ministry of Defence and the headquarters of thenational television station.[18] At the same time, several groups spontaneously organised themselves to take over the management of state bodies. One of these was led by former prime ministersIlie Verdeț andConstantin Dăscălescu, but it did not receive the support of the population or the army.[19] Ion Iliescu, on the other hand, was the leader of another group that included communist dissidents who had opposed Ceaușescu, whose authority was recognised by the Minister of DefenceVictor Atanasie Stănculescu on the afternoon of 22 December 1989.[20] He first learned of the revolution when he noticed the Securitate was no longer tailing him.[17]
The Ceaușescus were captured, hauled before adrumhead court-martial, and executed on Christmas Day. Years later, Iliescu conceded that the trial and execution were "quite shameful, but necessary" to end the chaos that had riven the country since Ceaușescu's overthrow.[21]
Iliescu (centre) with FSN membersDumitru Mazilu (left) andPetre Roman (right) on 23 December 1989, one day after the formation of the FSN.
Iliescu proposed multi-party elections and an "original democracy". This is widely held to have meant the adoption ofPerestroika-style reforms rather than the complete removal of existing institutions; it can be linked to the warm reception the new regime was given by Mikhail Gorbachev and the rest of theSoviet leadership, and the fact that the first post-revolutionary international agreement signed by Romania was with that country.[citation needed]
Rumours abounded for years that Iliescu and other high-ranking Party officials had been planning to overthrow Ceaușescu, but the events of December 1989 overtook them. For instance,Nicolae Militaru, the new regime's firstnational defence minister, said that Iliescu and others had planned to take Ceaușescu prisoner in February 1990 while he was out of the capital. However, Iliescu denied this, saying that the nature of the Ceaușescu regime—particularly the Securitate's ubiquity—made advance planning for a coup all but impossible.[17]
TheNational Salvation Front (FSN) subsequently decided to organise itself as a party and participate in the1990 general election—the first free election held in the country in 53 years–with Iliescu as its presidential candidate. The FSN won a sweeping victory, taking strong majorities in both chambers.[22] In the separate presidential election, Iliescu won handily, taking 85 per cent of the vote,[23] still the largest vote share for a free presidential election. He became Romania's first democratically elected head of state. To date, it is the only time since theFall of Communism that a president has been elected in a single round.[citation needed]
Iliescu and his supporters split from the Front and created the Democratic National Salvation Front (FDSN), which later evolved into the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR), then the Social Democratic Party (PSD) (seeSocial Democratic Party of Romania). Progressively, the Front lost its character as anational government or generic coalition, and became vulnerable to criticism for using its appeal as the first institution involved in power sharing, while engaging itself in political battles with forces that could not enjoy this status, nor the credibility.[citation needed]
Under the pressure of the events that led to theMineriads, his political stance has veered with time: from a proponent ofPerestroika, Iliescu recast himself as a Western Europeansocial democrat. The main debate around the subject of his commitment to such ideals is linked to the special conditions in Romania, and especially to the strongnationalist and autarkic attitude visible within the Ceaușescu regime. Critics have pointed out that, unlike most Communist-to-social democrat changes in theEastern Bloc, Romania's tended to retain various cornerstones.[citation needed]
Romania adopted its firstpost-Communist Constitution in 1991. In 1992, Iliescuwon a second term when he received 61% of the vote in the second round.[24] He immediately suspended his NSDF membership; the Constitution does not allow the president to be a formal member of a political party during his term.[citation needed]
He ran for a third time in1996 but, stripped of media monopoly, he lost in the second round toEmil Constantinescu, his second-round opponent in 1992. Over 1,000,000 votes were cancelled, leading to accusations of widespread fraud. Nevertheless, Iliescu conceded defeat within hours of polls closing, making him the only incumbent president to lose a bid for re-election since the end of Communism.
He began his third term on 20 December of that year, ending on 20 December 2004. The centre-right was severely defeated during the 2000 elections due largely to public dissatisfaction with the harsh economic reforms of the previous four years as well as the political instability and infighting of the multiparty coalition. Tudor's extreme views also ensured that most urban voters either abstained or chose Iliescu. The Năstase government, which came to power in this term of Iliescu, continued part of the series of reforms started by the previous governments between 1996 and 2000. During Iliescu's second term, Romania joined NATO and completed the negotiations for the accession to the European Union. One of the actions of the presidential institution during Iliescu's second term was the establishment of the "International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania", following diplomatic incidents caused by the Holocaust denial practiced by important figures in the country's leadership. The commission, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureateElie Wiesel, drew up a report on theHolocaust in Romania, report assumed and declared "state document" by Iliescu.[citation needed]
Due to the constitutional limit, Iliescu was ineligible for a third term in 2004, but won a four-yearSenate mandate in thegeneral election, as so in 1996, when he failed to be re-elected.
In the PSD leadership election of 21 April 2005, Iliescu lost the vote toMircea Geoană, but was elected as honorary president in 2006, a position without official executive authority in the party.[citation needed]
On 19 June 2025, during his hospitalisation, a series of podcast interviews titledAvangarda withIonuț Vulpescu, his former advisor and culture minister, was released, having been recorded between a few years to a few weeks prior to that point.[29][30] Iliescu had on 6 December 2024 planned to publish a statement regarding the2024 Romanian presidential election, but did not due to its annulement followingCălin Georgescu's first round victory due toaccusations of Russian interference. The statement was published on 19 June along with the podcast.[31]
Iliescu at the TVR during the Romanian Revolution of 1989. The broadcast was one of the key points of accusation against Iliescu
In 2016, a previously closed legal case regardingcrimes against humanity committed by the interim government headed by Iliescu during theRomanian Revolution was reopened.[32] In 2015, after 26 years of prolonged investigation, the authorities concluded that there was no evidence with which they could prosecute. In 2016, the case was ordered to be re-examined by the interim General Prosecutor.[citation needed] By 2017, military prosecutors had alleged that the events of 1989 were orchestrated by a misinformation campaign on the part of Iliescu's government, which were disseminated through broadcasting media.[33] Reportedly, this investigation lead to speculation of whether the conflict of 1989 could be classified as a revolution, or else as acoup d'état.[citation needed]
In April 2018, the General Prosecutor asked that Iliescu be put on trial. PresidentKlaus Iohannis approved this request, as well as the proceeding of the prosecution ofPetre Roman.[34] Iliescu was charged for his alleged role in the killing of 862 people during the revolution, at which time he headed theNational Salvation Front (FSN) interim government, as well as the spreading of misinformation.[33] Allegations included Iliescu's apparent involvement in the Mineriad case, in which miners quashed protests against the government. The initial charges, brought forward in 2005, were shortly dropped, until 2014 when the European Court of Human Rights found Iliescu's lack of investigation into the events of Mineriad to be in violation of human rights to life, freedom from inhumane, and degrading treatment and demonstration, and again in 2015, when the Military Prosecutor's Section within the Prosecutor's Office and the Justice Office reopened investigations into the Mineriad protests, accusing Iliescu, along with other accused perpetrators, of coordinating a general and systematic attack against the civilian population during the events from 13 until 15 June 1990 in Bucharest.[citation needed] On 13 June 2017, the Prosecutor's Office indicted Iliescu for crimes against humanity for actions taken by Iliescu during the Mineriad protests. The statement released by the office claimed that the attack illegally involved forces of the Interior Ministry, Defence Ministry, Romanian Intelligence service, as well as the miners and other workers from various areas of the country. The office further alleged that attacks were also carried out against peaceful residents.[citation needed] The case was ultimately rejected in December 2020, as the judges found that the indictment was void and thus could not be used in a trial.[35]
On 8 April 2019, Iliescu was officially charged with crimes against humanity.[36][37] Iliescu's lawyer Adrian Georgescu complained that the file was illegitimate[38] due to its lack of a prosecutor.[37] In December 2019, Iliescu's trial began to focus on allegations that he had intentionally spread disinformation through the use of broadcast media with the aid ofAurel Dragoș Munteanu, a member of the FSN and the director ofTVR during the revolution of 1989, meaning that he was greatly influential in the FSN's ability to foster support in the Romanian public.[39] Among the claims investigated were Iliescu's broadcast claim that "unknown terrorists" were responsible for the deaths of Elena and Nicolae Ceaușescu.[40]
Amid candlelight vigils and other memorial services during the 30th anniversary of the Romanian Revolution, several survivors of the conflict spoke out against Iliescu's trial, with many claiming it was a publicity stunt on the part of Iohannis to gain popularity from the Romanian population that still seek the truth about the revolution.[41] Iliescu's trial was not expected to reach a definitive conclusion.[41] The trial was first postponed to February 2020 due to Iliescu's declining health and the slow pace of legal proceedings.[42] This case was also rejected in June 2020, as a judge decided the indictment was not valid.[2] However, the Bucharest Court of Appeal decided in October 2023 that the trial could begin.[43]
Iliescu metElena "Nina" Șerbănescu in 1948 when they were both 18-year old students, he at theSaint Sava High School and she at the Iulia Hasdeu High School, in Bucharest.[44] With Nina only being one day younger than Iliescu, they were married on 21 July 1951. The couple had no children as Nina Iliescu suffered threemiscarriages.[45]
Iliescu previously underwent surgery in 2019 forpericardial effusion.[46] In September 2023, he was hospitalised in Bucharest.[47] On 11 June 2025, Iliescu entered theintensive care unit of the Prof. Dr. Agrippa Ionescu Emergency Clinical Hospital in Bucharest due to respiratory difficulty.[48] On 15 June, his condition was reported to be stable,[49] being diagnosed withlung cancer and undergoing anendobronchial intervention undergeneral anaesthesia on the following day.[50] By 18 June, Iliescu's condition had worsened, on that day undergoing another endobronchial intervention to maintain the permeability of theupper airways.[51] On 19 June, his condition was reported to be slightly improving.[52]
Iliescu died after almost two months hospitalisation, on 5 August 2025, at the age of 95.[53] His death was mocked by several officials of the rulingSave Romania Union (USR),[54] which opposed the declaration of a day of national mourning in honour of Iliescu.[55] Similar positions were also taken by representatives of theAlliance for the Union of Romanians.[56]
Though enjoying a certain popularity due to his opposition to Ceaușescu and image as a revolutionary, his political career after 1989 was marked by multiple controversies and scandals. Public opinion regarding his tenure as president is still divided.[63]
Some alleged Iliescu had connections to theKGB; the allegations continued during 2003–2008, when Russian dissidentVladimir Bukovsky, who had been granted access to Soviet archives, declared that Iliescu and some of the NSF members were KGB agents, that Iliescu had been in close connection with Mikhail Gorbachev ever since they had allegedly met during Iliescu's stay in Moscow, and that the Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a plot orchestrated by the KGB to regain control of the country's policies (gradually lost under Ceaușescu's rule).[64] The only hard evidence published was a discussion between Gorbachev and Bulgaria'sAleksandar Lilov from 23 May 1990 (after Iliescu's victory in the 20 May elections) in which Gorbachev said that Iliescu held a "calculated position", and that despite sharing common views with Iliescu, Gorbachev wanted to avoid sharing this impression with the public.[65]
Iliescu, along with other figures in the leadingFSN, was allegedly responsible for calling theJiu Valley miners to Bucharest on January (January 1990 Mineriad) and June (June 1990 Mineriad) 1990 to end the protests of the citizens gathered inUniversity Square, Bucharest, protests aimed against the ex-Communist leaders of Romania (like himself). The pejorative term for this demonstration was theGolaniad (from theRomaniangolan, rascal). On 13 June, an attempt of the authorities to remove from the square around 100 protesters, which had remained in the street even after theMay elections had confirmed Iliescu and the FSN, resulted in attacks against several state institutions, such as the Ministry of Interior, the Bucharest Police Headquarters and the National Television. Iliescu issued a call to the Romanian people to come and defend the government, prompting several groups of miners to descend on the capital, armed with wooden clubs and bats. They trashed theUniversity of Bucharest, some newspaper offices and the headquarters of opposition parties, claiming that they were havens of decadence and immorality – drugs, firearms and munitions, "an automatic typewriter", and fake currency. The June 1990 Mineriad in particular was subject to wide criticism, both domestically and internationally, with the historianAndrei Pippidi comparing the events to Nazi Germany'sKristallnacht.[66][67] Government inquiries later established that the miners were infiltrated and instigated by formerSecuritate operatives.[68] In February 1994 a Bucharest court "found two security officers, Colonel Ion Nicolae and warrant officer Corneliu Dumitrescu, guilty of ransacking the house ofIon Rațiu, a leading figure in theChristian Democratic National Peasants' Party, during the miners' incursion and stealing $100,000".[69]
In 1992, three years after the revolution which overthrew the Communist dictatorship, the Romanian government allowed KingMichael I to return to his country for Easter celebrations, where he drew large crowds.[70] In Bucharest, over a million people turned out to see him.[71] Michael's popularity alarmed the government of President Iliescu, so Michael was forbidden to visit Romania again for five years. In 1997, after Iliescu's defeat by Emil Constantinescu, the Romanian Government restored Michael's citizenship and again allowed him to visit the country.[72]
In December 2001, Iliescu pardoned three inmates convicted forbribery, including George Tănase, formerFinancial Guard head commissioner forIalomița County.[73] Iliescu had to revoke Tănase's pardon a few days later due to the media outcry, claiming that "a legal adviser was superficial in analysing the case".[74][75] Later, the humanitarian reasons invoked in the pardon were contradicted by another medical expert opinion.[76] Another controversial pardon was that of Dan Tartagă, a businessman fromBrașov who, while drunk, had run over and killed two people on a pedestrian crossing. He was sentenced to three years and a half but was pardoned after only a couple of months.[77] Tartagă was later sentenced to a two-year sentence forfraud.[78]
Most controversial of all, on 15 December 2004, a few days before the end of his last term, Iliescupardoned 47 convicts, includingMiron Cozma, the leader of the miners during the early 1990s, who had been sentenced in 1999 to 18 years in prison in conjunction with theSeptember 1991 Mineriad. This has attracted harsh criticism from all Romanian media.[79] Many of the pardoned had been convicted for corruption or other economic crimes, while one had been imprisoned for his involvement in the attempts at suppressing the 1989 Revolution.[79]
Iliescu was mentioned in the report of theCouncil of Europe investigator into illegal activities of theCIA in Europe,Dick Marty. He was identified as one of the people who authorised or at least knew about and should have stood accountable for the operation of aCIA black site atMihail Kogălniceanu airbase from 2003 to 2005,[81] in the context of theWar on terror. In April 2015, Iliescu confirmed that he had granted a CIA request for a site in Romania, but was not aware of the nature of the site, describing it as a small gesture of goodwill to an ally in advance of Romania's eventual accession toNATO. Iliescu further stated that had he known of the intended use of the site, he would certainly not have approved the request.[82]
According to the TVR show "100 Greatest Romanians" from 2006, launched as a campaign to identify the greatest Romanians of all time, out of 100 "Great Romanians" chosen by the participants, Iliescu came in 71st place. He was ranked below his predecessor Nicolae Ceaușescu and the incumbent president Traian Băsescu, but above Emil Constantinescu, who did not appear on the list.[83]
^As chairman of the Council of the National Salvation Front to 13 February 1990, chairman of the Provisional Council of National Unity to 20 June 1990.
^No Senate membership during his second presidential term (2000-2004)
^Dumitru Mazilu resigned from the leadership of theFSN on 26 January 1990
^[Dan Pavel e Iulia Huia, Nu putem reuși decît împreună. O istorie analitică a Convenției Democratice, 1989-2000, Iași, Polirom, 2003, ISBN 973-681-260-X.]
^[Florin Abraham, Romania since the second world war. A political, social and economic history, Bloomsbury, 2016, ISBN 9781472526298.]
^Slovak republic website,State honoursArchived 13 April 2016 at theWayback Machine: 1st Class in 2002 (click on "Holders of the Order of the 1st Class White Double Cross" to see the holders' table)
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