Civic groups and opposition urge Romanian president to dismiss SPP chief Lucian Pahonțu

Investigative findings on 1989 and 1990 repressions

Investigative publications Recorder and Snoop published reports on 26 August 2026 detailing the communist-era record of Lucian Pahonțu, who has directed Romania's Protection and Guard Service (SPP) since 2005. According to the investigation, Pahonțu served as a platoon commander in the Communist Securitate Troops and was deployed on 21 December 1989 against anti-regime demonstrators near the Intercontinental Hotel in Bucharest. In that crackdown, 48 people were killed, 150 were injured, and more than 1,000 were beaten and detained. The reporting also established that Pahonțu and his unit took part in operations against demonstrators in University Square on 13 June 1990. Pahonțu omitted these assignments from his public curriculum vitae.

Institutional screening and archive custody disputes

The investigations revealed that Pahonțu never submitted the statutory affidavit declaring non-collaboration with the communist political police, an obligation in force for 18 years under government emergency ordinance OUG 24/2008. The National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS) confirmed it had never issued a formal ruling on his background. CNSAS vice-president Mădălin Hodor stated that CNSAS received new files following journalistic inquiries, but noted that previous verification efforts stalled because the institution lacked physical storage to take over the classified archive from the Romanian Gendarmerie. The Gendarmerie stated that a CNSAS commission examined the pre-1989 records between 18 June and 30 October 2001 without requesting their physical transfer.

Pahonțu is the only person among the heads of services who was not checked ex officio.

Civic and political calls for presidential action

More than 20 non-governmental organizations released an open letter on 27 August 2026 urging Romanian President Nicușor Dan to remove Pahonțu from his position. The signatories stated that retaining a former Securitate officer present in the 1989 and 1990 repression units at the head of state security is unacceptable 36 years after the fall of communism. Opposition party Union Save Romania (USR) also demanded accountability. USR president and Timișoara mayor Dominic Fritz called on Pahonțu to provide public explanations and questioned whether state institutions deliberately withheld records from the public.

If it is confirmed that he was part of the repressive apparatus in 1989, we owe it to the victims of the Revolution and future generations for him to take a step back.

Parliamentary push for intelligence reform

USR lawmakers demanded Pahonțu's dismissal and called for a meeting of the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT). Deputy Cătălin Drulă criticized the lack of civilian oversight over military-led intelligence bodies, noting Pahonțu's 20-year tenure at the SPP. Deputy Emanuel Ungureanu urged prosecutors to investigate Pahonțu for crimes against humanity, while deputy Alexandru Dimitriu noted that state bodies neglected to verify Pahonțu's past despite statutory requirements. Historian Dorin Dobrincu stated that institutional silence reflects entrenched interests across political and security structures, while historian Dennis Deletant wrote that post-communist security reform has suffered from weak parliamentary oversight and the absence of credible lustration.