The Speech
Delivered by Mr. Ion Iliescu
on his election as President of Romania
Mister President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The solemnity in which we take part today - sanctioning my election as President of Romania - has numerous and various meanings and significations.
The first of them has, undoubtedly, a profoundly democratic nature, consecrating the supremacy of the Rule of Law and thus sanctioning the legitimacy of the political act. The fact that the principles of the Rule of Law have been fully respected and implemented - both through the fact that the entire electoral process unfolded under the control of the Romanian Constitution and the fact that the results of the elections have been sanctioned by the Constitutional Court of Romania - endow the results with incontestable legitimacy.
Secondly, the unfolding and the closing of the electoral process has also a political significance, as it sanctioned the will of the Romanian people to pursue the path towards democracy in organizing and functioning the Romanian society. Therefore I believe that now, after going through the elections, we all are now convinced that issues uniting the democratic forces of the country are - or they can be - far more numerous than those dividing them. We all have a common destiny, which we must fulfil together; we must no longer wait for crisis situation to bring us closer together; we must understand and respect the profound need for democracy of our people, we must bow before the sacrifices and efforts accompanying the establishment of democracy within our country.
The third message conveyed by the results, sanctioned today by the Constitutional Court is a social one. We have understood that boosting and modernising the domestic economy, in accordance with the demands of the contemporary pace of development and with those of our dignified integration within the European Union, must meet the expectations of the silent ones, of the numerous ones, confronted with suffering and gross injustice. "Everything must have a limit" they say and every single one of us is entitled, within a democracy, to a choice, especially when it concerns the living conditions, and the need for equal opportunities; should all these crucial elements be missing, a huge potential of individual and social creativity would be wasted, plagued by ignorance and lack of interest.
As a conclusion, a fourth side to the meaning of these elections is a historical one. The last electoral proceedings of this millennium have been completed under conditions of exemplary democracy. We are standing in the threshold towards a new millennium. Let us put to good use this coincidence, by marking it into the history as the day in which we have changed the way to deal with each other, we have understood the necessity to change the harsh way in which we have involved ourselves within the political debate during the last decade. Still, the political confrontation can become better outlined, more accessible to the common people and more productive for the society in its whole if we find the strength to renounce our hard feelings towards each other.
Romania will only become stronger if its energies will unite, rather than divide, it will only prevail through reconciliation.
I wish to pledge once more, under these solemn circumstances, my unmitigated commitment to be the president of all Romanians, and to fulfil my right and my obligation sanctioned by the Constitution to inaugurate - with the new millennium - a new chapter in the history of national reconciliation.
ION ILIESCU
Bucharest, December 14, 2000
 THE NEW MEMBERS OF GOVERNMENT
1. Adrian Nastase - Prim-ministru
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