The draft decision on the initiation of the procedure to remove the bust of Mircea Vulcanescu from Sfantul Stefan Park in Sector 2 of the capital caused a scandal at the meeting of the local council, which was also attended by Senator Diana Shoshoake and the Deputy of the AUR. In the end, the project was no longer accepted.

The project provided for the granting of powers to the Administration of Public Property Sector 2 to obtain the necessary approvals and permission for dissolution:

• “Article 1 It is approved to start the procedures for the cancellation of the structure, which is a bust of Mircea Vulcanescu in the park of St. Shefan in the territorial administrative radius of sector 2 of the municipality of Bucureşti.
• Article 2. The Administration of Public Domain Sector 2, a public service of local importance under the direction of Sector 2 of the local council, has the authority to obtain the necessary approvals and permits for dissolution and to carry out the provisions of this decision.
• Article 3 The Administration of the Public Property Sector 2 and relevant departments within the specialized apparatus of the mayor will ensure the implementation of measures to return the work of art to the author, its storage or capitalization, depending on the circumstances, in accordance with the conditions of the act of acquisition.
• Article 4 The executive power of Sector 2 and the Administration of the Public Property Sector 2 will implement the provisions of this decision.”

An endorsement report signed by local PNL councilor Silviu Feroiu states that Mircea Vulcanescu was convicted by the People’s Court in 1945 and 1946 respectively for war crimes:

• “Mircea Vulcanescu was a dignitary of the Romanian state, he was part of the Antonescu government from January 1941 to August 1944, during which he participated in dozens of ministerial councils in which matters related to preparation and decision-making were discussed as practically as possible for the extermination of the Jewish and Roma population, for their exclusion from society, to which Mircea Vulcanescu directly applied.
• Mircea Vulcanescu, as Deputy Secretary of State at the Ministry of Finance, was involved in how the National Bank and the Ministry of Finance seized the assets, jewels and money of Jews deported to Transnistria and how quickly they died in Transnistria.
• Mircea Vulcanescu was sentenced in 1946 to eight years in prison, where he died in 1952. His daughter Meriuka appealed this decision, but the Supreme Court of Cassation rejected the claim in 2019.”

“Uncultured, fraudulent and anti-Romanian act”

AUR MP Antonio Andruscak, who was present at the local council meeting, claimed that Mircea Vulcaniascu was “a great Christian and a great Romanian patriot who returned to the country eight golden wagons” with which it was possible to start “military operations against the communist occupiers”. continuation.

He accused the Elie Wiesel Institute of being “concerned with rewriting the history of Romania and destroying the hero-martyr cult” of the Romanian people.

During the debate, Andrusczak announced that if the bill is approved, it will be challenged on legal grounds.

• “What we are doing now, you should have done before – that is, public discussion. What is not mandatory and is a requirement of the law. Second, you should have gotten all the opinions before putting this project on the agenda. (…) The Academy, as in previous years, opposed this project. There is no public debate with the involved participants: neither with civil society, nor with the Ministry of Culture, nor with the Academy,” he said, according to Agerpres.

For her part, Senator Diana Soshoake said that approving the project would mean “an uncultured, fraudulent and anti-Romanian act.”

She also argued that the cancellation of the bust does not belong to the competence of Sector 2, but to the capital city hall, and the opinion of the Ministry of Culture and the opinion of the Romanian Academy are necessary beforehand. She added that she intends to file a criminal case against the initiator of the project, as well as the Elie Wiesel Institute.

(from 1:03)

Diana Soshoake noted that Law 127/2017 established a national day of commemoration of martyrs from communist prisons, in the explanation of which the name of Mircea Vulcanescu appears.

“You are presented with a draft, applying 70-year-old legislation that cannot even be attributed to the trial of Mircea Vulcanescu, given that he has never been convicted for what the Elie Wiesel Institute says,” Sosoaka added.

Ultimately, the project was no longer accepted by the Sector 2 local council.

The reaction of the Elie Wiesel Institute

The Elie Wiesel Institute responded by saying that it was not involved in the draft decision and results of the District 2 local council vote to remove the bust of Mircea Vulcanescu.

• “We are surprised to learn from the media that today, 28/12/2022, at the meeting of the local council of Sector 2 of Bucharest, there were speeches that accused the Elie Wiesel Institute of being “concerned” with rewriting the history of Romania and destroying the cult of hero-martyrs of the Romanian people.
• Therefore, we make the following clarifications: The Elie Wiesel Institute is not involved in the draft decision and voting results regarding the bust of Mircea Vulcanescu, a person convicted of war crimes. The voting results show that part of the local elected representatives of the PNL and USR voted in favor, while other deputies voted against,” said the press release sent to Agerpres.

The press release notes that the Government has adopted a “National Strategy for the Prevention and Counteraction of Anti-Semitism, Xenophobia, Radicalization and Hate Speech”, but this state policy “remains only on paper, while war criminals, members of the Antonescu government continue to be viewed by the authorities as civil models”:

• “We are concerned that the local elected officials did not understand the fact that in Romania in 2015 the national elected (parliament) voted for a law that is not enforced, and today they lost the chance to show that the rule in Romania is the law, not mythology ; In Romania, the government adopted the “National Strategy for the Prevention and Fight against Anti-Semitism, Xenophobia, Radicalization and Hate Speech for the Period 2021-2023”.
• This state policy remains only on paper as long as the war criminals, members of the Antonescu government, continue to be seen by the authorities as civil models and have public worship.”