This year’s Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve are very special. The month of December began with the celebration of 80 years from the Romania’s Reunification, and it will end by entering the tenth year from the revolution that overthrew the Communist Regime from our country. In the first day of the next year we will enter the last year of the second millennium since Our Lord Jesus Christ was born. This period of time is a very rare occasion to put together the duty of respecting the past with the obligation of looking forward, into the future.

For those who fought against communism nine years ago, the new year will be one of prayers for the memory of those who died in the revolution as well as for our country's future. It takes a longer time to consolidate a democratic system and this requires a very hard work. We have returned into the big family of the European nations. But Romania is not yet in the front line of the countries that will be integrated in the European Union and NATO. We are trying to get rid of the communist methods of managing the economy, but the free market economy is not yet introduced, our people are still waiting for a better life and the properties stolen by the communists must return to their owners. For the young people, this last decade might have appeared very confusing and disappointing: endless political debates, frequent elections, pointless arguments between the politicians. We must not lose the faith. As one who lived many years and who had the experience of good and bad moments in our history, I think that we can learn from the past and we can take the courage from our past experiences […]. I would have liked very much to be able to say now that the year of 1999 will be an easy one. Unfortunately, it is not the case. We will have serious economic problems. We might also have political problems in the future. All that I ask now is that while fighting to solve these problems we must not forget that we belong to the same Romanian people and that we have a higher duty to our Country and our destiny, a higher duty than to attend the narrow political quarrels. It is not true that our country is unable to create authentic democracy and market economy. We had them both in the past and we will have them in the future. It is not true that we do not have a true political class: united, we will overcome all the problems. We must never forget that our people survived to plots, hunger, communism, destruction of the history and traditions- all the evil things of this century. We survived to all these dangers and we are here, today. We have triumphed in the past and we will do so in the future. As I said on many occasions, my Family and me are decided not to spare any efforts in working for the prosperity and success of our country, Romania.

So help us God!

(original text in Romanian)