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| Romania in Turmoil |
| (2012-01-16) |
| Last updated: 2012-01-17 13:02 EET |
Bucharest and other major cities across Romania have lately seen a fresh string of protest rallies mounted by citizens discontent with the latest austerity measures adopted by the government aimed at reducing the effects of the economic and financial crisis. Protests have already been described as the most serious since 2004, when president Traian Basescu, currently at his second term in office, came to power.
The protesters - who took to the streets of Bucharest in thousands, though their number was lower in other cities –voiced the discontent of a larger mass of citizens with the latest pay cuts in the public sector, tax and duty hikes, withe the government’s tighter grip on state institutions and the endemic corruption. Anti-presidential and governmental slogans were chanted during the protest rallies.
Unlike in other cities across Romania, where protests went on peacefully, in Bucharest, groups of angry young people pelted riot police with rocks and Molotov cocktails, disturbing order in several Bucharest districts. Police made arrests among the protesters and several wounded have been reported both among the protesters and the police. Prime Minister Emil Boc invited the protesters to a dialogue with the ruling coalition making an appeal to calm and reason.
Emil Boc: “Dialogue is the only way to solve all the problems in Romania. The solution is not throwing bricks, the solution is dialogue. I know Romanians have been going through difficult times. These crisis years have prompted us to make decisions and take measures that were not to our liking, but which unfortunately were necessary because otherwise we could have not passed through these difficult times".
The parliament opposition has distanced itself from the violent rallies, and yet it encouraged Romanians to mount peaceful protests to foster change in Romania. Social-Liberal co-president, Crin Antonescu called for an emergency Parliament session and snap election.
Crin Antonescu: “We are waiting for an extraordinary session of the Romanian Parliament. If the answer of those who are in power today is not in the direction we want, we’ll be going for radical measures, not to flare up tension, but to defuse it.”
Pundits believe that protesters will gain an advantage as long as they remain in the limelight, grabbing media attention. Here is political analyst Cristian Parvulescu.
Cristian Parvulescu: “As soon as these rallies diminish in intensity, as it happened in other countries, claims will become less important, too.”
The analyst believes protesters’ claims are very serious, consistent, and if listened to, anti-system organizations and parties will gain the upper hand and eventually prevail.
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