Ion Iliescu, Romania’s first freely elected president after Communism, helped bring down the country’s dictatorship and led its transition to democracy and a market economy. A central figure in the 1989 revolution,

On the day of Ion Iliescu’s funeral, the polarizing legacy of Romania’s first elected president after the fall of communism was laid bare.

As a three-term president, he guided the country toward democracy, but he was called an authoritarian at heart and accused of brutality during the revolt that put him in power.

Ion Iliescu, Romania’s first freely elected president after the fall of communism in 1989, who later faced charges of crimes against humanity for his role in the bloody revolution, has died.

Romania's first post-communist president, Ion Iliescu, was buried on Thursday amid stark divisions over his legacy. He died at 95, symbolising Romania's tumultuous transition.View on euronews

The casket carrying the body of Ion Iliescu, Romania’s first elected president after the bloody fall of communism in 1989, was transferred on Wednesday from the hospital where he died to the capital’s presidential palace for a state funeral as the late leader’s death continues to divide opinion.

Ion Iliescu, who has died aged 95, was a Romanian politician who approved the summary execution of his predecessor, the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, during the Christmas uprising of 1989, and then stepped into the presidential vacuum himself.

Initially hailed as the man who would lead Romania into a new democratic era, Iliescu's legacy soon became more complicated. His leadership steered the nation through its fragile early years of democracy and towards eventual integration with Nato and the European Union, achievements that many credit to his steady hand.

Iliescu has a complex legacy. He will be remembered as the country’s first democratic leader, and for his brutal crackdown against dissent in 1990.