Thousands of demonstrators chanting "Down with Communism" demanded the ouster of President-elect Ion Iliescu in the largest anti-government protest since the first free election in 53 years.
The demonstration Thursday came four days after the election in which Iliescu scored a landslide victory despite opposition claims that he and other members of the National Salvation Front are neo-Communist.The estimated 8,000 protesters demonstrated peacefully for about seven hours in University Square in downtown Bucharest. About 600 people led by three black-robed Orthodox priests staged a candlelight march to the television station late in the evening.
The marchers were demanding that the government-run television show a tape, which they said showed members of the National Salvation Front dividing up top posts on Dec. 22, the same day Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu fell from power.
The Front, dominated by former Communists, has insisted it did not form until after the revolution began. The demonstrators said the tape showed that the Front actually existed some time before Ceausescu's ouster and that its members took advantage of the revolutionary chaos to grab power.
The demonstrators said they planned to march to the television station again Friday evening because they arrived too late Thursday to present their demands.