claims that the Securitate continued to exist de facto, even after the revolution that ended the Ceausescu dictatorship
This is what seems to generally happen in post-communist countries, the difference is probably only in degree.
You have a secret police, which is an organization that exists for decades and is full of amoral people cooperating to keep a rule over the country. Then the regime is over, and...
Do you kill those people? Nope.
Do you at least put them on some kind of blacklist, saying “these people should never be allowed to get into any position of power”? Aaah… there were some feeble attempts, but generally no.
Well, guess what happens next. Many of those people get into the new positions of power (it’s not like their skills are useless now, so they can e.g. join the non-secret police), and they know they have a network of former colleagues they can trust, who are also seeking positions of power. Together they can take over some institutions, the only question is which ones and how completely.
In worst case, even large parts of the old institutions remain, only rebranded.
This is what seems to generally happen in post-communist countries, the difference is probably only in degree.
You have a secret police, which is an organization that exists for decades and is full of amoral people cooperating to keep a rule over the country. Then the regime is over, and...
Do you kill those people? Nope.
Do you at least put them on some kind of blacklist, saying “these people should never be allowed to get into any position of power”? Aaah… there were some feeble attempts, but generally no.
Well, guess what happens next. Many of those people get into the new positions of power (it’s not like their skills are useless now, so they can e.g. join the non-secret police), and they know they have a network of former colleagues they can trust, who are also seeking positions of power. Together they can take over some institutions, the only question is which ones and how completely.
In worst case, even large parts of the old institutions remain, only rebranded.