See in the following film how such a Congress worked. Ion Iliescu speaks the whole time, asking the audience if there are any observations to be made, and who votes for, against, or abstains on the named candidates. The Communist Youth Congress [UTC] occurs under the watchful gaze of Nicolae Ceausescu, general secretary of the party, and president of the state council.
The viewer will notice that everything happens in unanimity, nobody votes against, nobody abstains, nobody has any observations to make. Just like the unanimous expression of support is mandatory, so is the clapping and the chanting “PCR! PCR! PCR!” and “Ceausescu! Ceausescu! Ceausescu!” Mind you, this type of uniformity and theater of democracy [the pre-established outcomes of dictated democracy] you see in the film is for the Youth Movement. Imagine the fake democratic process on actual state affairs. Imagine how rare organic dissent was, particularly because dissent, no matter how reasonable and patriotic in motivation, would earn you censure. Over fake harmony, I’ll take honest conflict any day of the week.
At this point in time, Ceausescu didn’t imagine that 17 years later, Ion Iliescu – so swift and smooth during this event [after the nominated straw-men and straw-women got voted in] – would take the reins from him and have him shot.
https://youtu.be/HXPWjhVhhNk
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