page_title: National Salvation Front (Romania)
section_title: Formation and rise to power
hierarchical_section_title: National Salvation Front (Romania) / History / Formation and rise to power
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Image prise pendant la Revolution roumaine: Dumitru Mazilu, Ion Iliescu et Petre Roman.
context_page_description: The National Salvation Front is the name of a political organization that was the governing body of Romania in the first weeks after the Romanian Revolution in 1989. It subsequently became a political party, and won the 1990 election under the leadership of then-President Ion Iliescu.
  In 1992, some members of the Front, including President Iliescu, broke away from it, forming the Democratic National Salvation Front. In 1993 the remaining FSN was renamed as the Democratic Party.
  The National Salvation Front is the common ancestor of two of the largest active political parties in Romania today: the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party.
context_section_description: In March 1989 six prominent members of the Romanian Communist Party wrote an open letter to President Nicolae Ceaușescu that criticised his abuses of power and his economic policies. The so-called "Letter of the Six" was circulated in the Western media and read on Radio Free Europe.
  In 1989, before the 14th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, two letters signed "National Salvation Front" began circulating. They were read on Radio Free Europe on 27 August and 8 November. The first letter had a number of questions about Ceaușescu's mismanagement of the economy and human rights violations, while the second letter appealed to the Congress not to re-elect Ceaușescu.
  Largely, the purpose of the organization was out of resentment toward Ceaușecu rather than resentment toward communism. Members of the National Salvation Front such as Silviu Brucan and Ion Iliescu believed strongly that the revolution would keep communism alive, emphasizing a structural change in agriculture and trade organization. People flocked to the National Salvation Front for a multitude of reasons ranging from religious oppression in members such as László Tőkés and alleged mismanagement and marginalization of undesirables within the Communist party in members such as Ion Iliescu.
  After the Romanian Revolution, the same name led to the question of whether the National Salvation Front existed as an underground organization. According to Silviu Brucan, this was not the case, as the letters were written by Alexandru Melian, a professor at the University of Bucharest, who had no connection to the leaders of the NSF. This was contradicted by Nicolae Militaru, who claimed that he, together with Ion Iliescu, led a clandestine National Salvation Front which asked Melian to write this appeal.
  The creation of the FSN was officially announced to the public by Ion Iliescu in radio and TV addresses on 22 December 1989, after the overthrow of Ceaușescu. The FSN took power from the communist authorities. Within four days, the FSN formed an interim government with Ion Iliescu being the president and Petre Roman as the interim Prime Minister. The initial membership of FSN came from diverse backgrounds: intellectuals, students, army officers, but the leaders were mostly former Communist officials (see List of members of the National Salvation Front Council).
caption: Ion Iliescu (center) with FSN members Dumitru Mazilu (left) and Petre Roman (right) on 23 December 1989, one day after the formation of the FSN.
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