THE MISUSE OF THE LUSTRATION PROCESSES IN THE POST-COMMUNIST TRANSITIONS IN EUROPE

Abstract

The fall of the Berlin Wall opened the gate to democracy for the post-communist
countries in Europe. However, the road towards democracy in all post-communist
countries in Europe proved to be very difficult. One of the main questions on the road
towards democracy in these countries was the question what to do with the
problematic communist totalitarian past: to forgive and forget or to punish and
remember. Most of the post-communist countries in Europe decided to punish and
remember their communist past. That is why 14 post-communist countries in Europe
decided to implement the process of lustration in order to confront this communist
past. Taking that into consideration, we can say that the lustration processes were
frequently used in the process of facing the communist past in Europe. However, very
often in theory is stressed out that the process of lustration is one the most
controversial mechanism of transitional justice. Many authors warn that lustration
hides the danger of political discredit and revenge. These types of claims during the
post-communist transition have become reality in a several post-communist countries
in Europe (Albania, Poland, Macedonia). In these post-communist countries the
process of lustration was used as a weapon in the hands of the ruling political elites
against their political opponents, a weapon that needed to strengthen the position of
the ruling political parties and marginalize their political opponents. At the end, the
process of lustration has had very negative impact at the democratic consolidation of
these countries instead of a positive one. That is why the subject of this paper will be
the way the lustration processes were misused in the post-communist countries in
Europe. The main methods that are used are the following: method of analysis,
historical, normative and political method. The overall conclusion is that the process
of lustration was very often misused by creating lustration laws that covered positions
in the private sector too, by creating lustration laws that covered periods after the fall
of the communist regimes and by creating lustration laws that violated the basic
human rights of lustrated individuals (the right to a fair trial, the right to respect of
private and family life etc).