Havana Cuba. — On December 21, 1989, the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu announced, in a five-hour speech and in the midst of violent clashes between the Romanian people and the political police, that the “higher phase of the construction of socialism” would begin on that day. Neither he nor his wife, Elena, realized that the communist regime had already fallen, an oversight that tyrants generally suffer from.
The imprint of the Berliners tearing down the wall, and the definitive unification of the two Germanys, were too vigorous symbols for an obsolete and cruel dictatorship. Like a domino effect, the countries of Eastern Europe threw off the Bolshevik yoke. On December 16, a social outbreak had taken place in the city of Timisoara, which Ceauşescu ordered to suppress with bullets to intimidate the population.
However, the protests against a regime that literally starved Romanians to death while the dictator and his family enriched themselves, spread to other areas of the country until they reached the capital. There would be no going back.
Ceauşescu tried to appease popular anger with salary promises and subsidies, resorting to the demagogy that had kept him in power for twenty-two years. But it was already late. The tinderbox of freedom ignited strongly in the crowd that booed and hissed at him as he delivered his ridiculous harangue in the Bucharest square. Europe was changing too fast for a sultan-like communist to realize his own irrelevance.
Like other totalitarian regimes that have survived the demise of the USSR, or emerged under the influence of Stalinist ideologues in the 21st century, Nicolae Ceaușescu tried to condemn the events in Timisoara and hold a massive demonstration in support of his regime, the couple that accused foreign powers of wanting to prevent “the construction of socialism.” It is the regulatory script in the terminal phase of communist dictatorships; an unequivocal symptom of the end, although its heralds pretend to make believe that “the process” is stronger than ever.
Four days passed between the speech that made Ceauşescu feel safe on his podium for the last time, and the death of his wife by firing squad on December 25, 1989.
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