It has been quite a year in Romania with the resignation of two prime ministers and near-impeachment of a president. This coupled with nationwide riots and a growing sense of injustice means that next month's parliamentary elections will be the most bitterly contested for decades. The power struggle between Traian Basescu, the right-wing president, and Victor Ponta, the left-wing prime minister, has grabbed all the headlines, but the story behind this struggle stretches back to Romania's communist past – and to the very moment when a firing squad put an end to Nicolai Ceausescu, Europe's last Stalinist dictator.
