Congresul al XIV-lea al Partudului Comunist Roman

Fourteenth (and last) Congress of the Romanian Communist Party

November 1989, Bucharest, Romania

In the autumn of 1989 'opportunities' to oust Ceausescu from power did exist for party-state elites, but they were either unwilling or unable (or both) to do so. In spite of the fact that East European Communist regimes had recently collapsed, members of the Romanian party-state elite did not express dissent, let alone act to remove Ceausescu, at the XIV Party Congress in late November 1989. Indeed, on the contrary, they unanimously re-elected Ceausescu to the post of General Secretary, even though this long-anticipated, pre-scheduled event offered them the perfect opportunity to act.