of Bucharest, in Dămăroaia, the reason for his subsequent colloquial moniker, "The Oracle of Dămăroaia". Despite increased pressure, most of the contributors to the protest refused to withdraw their statement. Brucan later accused Apostol of having given in to pressures. During and after the Revolution Brucan was part of the National Salvation Front (FSN) during the Romanian Revolution, joining its Provisional Council and its executive committee. As a member of the council, he was also involved in selecting Roman for the office of Premier. He was a member of the council (together with Ion Iliescu, Petre Roman and some generals, including Nicolae Militaru) who decided to put the Ceaușescu couple on trial at the site in which they were being held in Târgoviște. That was due to the fear that Securitate snipers might attack the barracks and free them. According to the testimony of Petre Roman, Brucan was among those who insisted for Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu to be executed immediately after the trial, a claim that was denied by Brucan. When it was decided that the 10-point programme be read on national television on 22 December, according to Dumitru Mazilu, Brucan wanted it to include a clause that Romania would honour its obligations under the Soviet-controlled Warsaw Pact. In early January, Brucan made an assurance that the FSN had no intention of turning into a political party but would support some candidates. However, only three weeks later, he supported the transformation of the FSN into a political party, arguing that otherwise, there would be a "political vacuum" that the new political parties would be unable to fill. After public allegations, Brucan resigned from the FSN in February 1990, claiming that he had accomplished his mission to restore stability in Romania and to put the country on a course toward multi-party elections. His prediction that the FSN would win the elections by more than 90%, supported the already-wide suspicions of falsified ballots. Early that year, he had been the host of investor George Soros at the Group for Social Dialogue, a Romanian NGO that had been formed around the intellectual élite of the previous regime. He did not wish to run in the 1990 elections but to be "just the adviser" of now-President Iliescu. Nevertheless, he later issued a vocal criticism of President Iliescu. In 1990, Brucan contended that Romanians would need 20 years to become accustomed to democracy. That