He , along with other figures in the leading FSN , was allegedly responsible for calling the Jiu Valley miners to Bucharest on 28 January and 14 June 1990 to end the protests of the citizens gathered in University Square , Bucharest , protests aimed against the ex-communist leaders of Romania ( like himself ) . The pejorative term for this demonstration was the Golaniad ( from the Romanian '' golan '' , rascal ) . On 13 June , an attempt of the authorities to remove from the square around 100 protesters , which had remained in the street even after the May elections had confirmed Iliescu and the FSN , resulted in attacks against several state institutions , such as the Ministry of Interior , the Bucharest Police Headquarters and the National Television . Iliescu issued a call to the Romanian people to come and defend the government , prompting several groups of miners to descend on the capital , armed with wooden clubs and bats . They trashed the University of Bucharest , some newspaper offices and the headquarters of opposition parties , claiming that they were havens of decadence and immorality – drugs , firearms and munitions , " an automatic typewriter " , and fake currency . The June 1990 Mineriad in particular was widely criticized both at home and internationally , with one historian ( Andrei Pippidi ) comparing the events to Nazi Germany 's Kristallnacht . Government inquiries later established that the miners were infiltrated and instigated by former Securitate operatives . In February 1994 a Bucharest court " found two security officers , Colonel Ion Nicolae and warrant officer Corneliu Dumitrescu , guilty of ransacking the house of Ion Rațiu , a leading figure in the Christian Democratic National Peasants ' Party , during the miners ’ incursion and stealing $ 100,000 . " In 1992 , three years after the revolution which overthrew the Communist dictatorship , the Romanian government allowed King Michael to return to his country for Easter celebrations , where he drew large crowds . In Bucharest over a million people turned out to see him . Michael 's popularity alarmed the government of President Ion Iliescu , so Michael was forbidden to visit Romania again for five years . In 1997 , after Iliescu 's defeat by Emil Constantinescu , the Romanian Government restored Michael 's citizenship and again allowed him to visit the country
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Ion Iliescu