At the Free Iran World Summit 2023, Mr. Petre Roman, former Prime Minister of Romania, expressed his heartfelt gratitude to NCRI President-elect Mrs. Maryam Rajavi and admiration for the fighters of freedom in Iran who stand against the cruel Iranian regime. He emphasized that all dictatorships, including Iran’s, only seek to maintain their own power, which is why they claim there is no alternative. Drawing on Romania’s own experience in overthrowing the Ceausescu dictatorship, he shared a powerful story of how the regime collapsed within hours under the pressure of the people’s will for freedom. Roman expressed confidence that similar events would occur in Iran, believing that the fight for freedom will ultimately prevail, and he expressed his deepest respect for their struggle.
The full text of Mr. Petre Roman’s speech follows:
Mrs. Rajavi, first of all, thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me this great opportunity to express my deepest appreciation for the fighters for freedom in Iran, who are standing against the barbaric cruelty of the Iranian regime.
Why do all dictatorships, including the Iranian one, chant the same mantra that there is no alternative? Is it because they care about the future of Iran? Absolutely not. They simply think and are convinced that they can eliminate, and erase any alternative to their own personal power against the people. I am grateful to my colleague, the former Prime Minister of Ireland, for mentioning the Romanian revolution, which put an end to the Ceausescu dictatorship in Romania. Because you, Madam President Rajavi, could say, and I would say, you should say to those dictators, to those terrible people in Iran, “Beware, criminals, beware.” History tells us formidable stories about how people conquer their freedom and how democratic alternatives are born.
Petre Roman, Prime Minister of Romania (1989-1991)
The fight for freedom always prevails. The circumstances in Iran are pointing that the change of regime and the collapse of the barbarity is very near. #FreeIran2023 #OurChoiceMaryamRajavi pic.twitter.com/JvOewdbn9t— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) July 11, 2023
I myself was on a barricade in the center of Bucharest on December 21, 1999. It was a fragile barricade made of our iron will against the Ceausescu dictatorship. When 20 minutes to midnight, they started to kill us and initiated a massacre against us, out of the 81 people present there, 39 were killed, with 17 of them being less than 18 years old. At that moment, nobody could have believed that just 12 hours later, under the pressure of hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of Bucharest, the dictators would flee from the headquarters of the Communist Party and the regime would collapse instantly. Who could have imagined that the dictatorship would be erased, and eliminated just 12 hours later when they started to kill us on the barricade? Nobody. But it happened.
And I am glad, full of confidence, that similar events can and will happen because the fight for freedom always prevails. The current circumstances in Iran point to the fact that the change of regime, the collapse of this barbaric cruelty, is very, very near. Please accept my deepest, deepest, deepest respect.
