In brief
Interim Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan released a message on Facebook commemorating the Mineriada of 13–15 June 1990.
Bolojan said the Mineriada meant violence against citizens exercising their rights and that such repression can never be a tool of power in a democracy.
The events left four dead, 1,300 injured and 1,200 illegally detained, according to the reports.
In March 2026 the supreme court returned the Mineriada case to the Prosecutor General's Office, granting in part the defendants' requests.
The Romanian president called the lack of a clear judicial ruling after 36 years an impermissible stain and a debt to the nation's moral health.
- 13 JunMiners are called to Bucharest; four-day crackdown on University Square protesters begins (13–15 June).
- 15 JunFour people killed, 1,300 injured and 1,200 illegally detained during the repression.
- 1 MarSupreme court returns Mineriada case to the Prosecutor General's Office, partially granting defendants' exceptions.
- 13 JunInterim PM Bolojan and the Romanian president issue statements marking the 36th anniversary.
Bolojan's official statement
Romania's interim prime minister Ilie Bolojan released a message on Facebook marking 36 years since the Mineriada of 13–15 June 1990. He described the events as one of the most painful moments of the country's early democratic period, when citizens exercising their right to protest were beaten, humiliated, illegally arrested and silenced by force.
“In a democratic Romania, violence and repression can never be tools of power.”
Bolojan stressed that democracy means more than elections, requiring respect for free expression, fundamental rights and the dignity of every citizen. He concluded by stating that the nation bows before the victims of the Mineriada.
The Mineriada of 1990
The Mineriada unfolded over 13–15 June 1990, when thousands of miners were brought to Bucharest to suppress an anti-government protest in University Square. The confrontation left four people dead, 1,300 injured and another 1,200 illegally detained, according to the accounts cited by Romanian media.
Legal case returned to prosecutors
The criminal case over the Mineriada, in which former president Ion Iliescu stood trial for the violent repression of demonstrators, was sent back to the Prosecutor General's Office in March 2026. The supreme court partially admitted the requests and exceptions raised by the defendants. Alongside Iliescu, former prime minister Petre Roman, former deputy prime minister Gelu Voican-Voiculescu, former SRI director Virgil Măgureanu and Adrian Sârbu (then an adviser to Roman) were referred to justice for crimes against humanity.
Presidential call for a verdict
A second article reported that the president of Romania also issued a statement on the anniversary, pointing out that the absence of a clear judicial verdict, more than three and a half decades later, remains an impermissible stain and an unresolved obligation. The president noted that the moral health and solidarity of the nation rest in part on delivering that act of justice.