Background
The initial enthusiasm after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 was tempered in January 1990, after the National Salvation Front (Frontul Salvării Naţionale, FSN), an organization that emerged as the leader during the anti-Ceauşescu revolution, decided to run as a party in the elections it was set to organize. Further discontent was brought by fact that many of the FSN leaders, including its president, Ion Iliescu, were former members of the Romanian Communist Party. At the moment of the 1989 Revolution, the Communist Party had a membership of 4 million in a population of 22 million.
The newly founded parties that opposed the FSN organised, beginning with April, large electoral meetings in University Square. Students and professors at the University of Bucharest also joined in the protests. One of their most vocal demands was the voting into law of the eighth demand of the Proclamation of Timişoara, which stated that communists should be prevented from holding official functions.
Iliescu dubbed the protesters as golani (rascals) or huligani (hooligans) and implied fascists groups participated in the protest in an attempt to seize the power. The protesters eventually adopted the name golani and the movement came to be known as the Golaniad.
After Iliescu and the FSN won a landslide victory in the elections of May 20, the opposition parties decided to disband the meeting. Only a small part of the protesters remained in the square, where they set up tents. After several weeks, the government decided to forcefully evacuate the remaining protesters, but the police attempts were met with violence, and several state institutions, including the police headquarters, the national television station, and Foreign Ministry, were attacked.President Iliescu issued a call to Romania's population to come to Bucharest in order to save the "besieged democratic regime" and restore order and democracy in Bucharest. The most important group to answer the call were the powerful miners organizations from Jiu Valley. Some 10,000 miners were transported in special trains to Bucharest.
Read more about this topic: June 1990 Mineriad
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