An interesting week of protests in Romania
February 5, 2017 8:30 PM Subscribe
In January, Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu's government announced emergency decrees to commute sentences for certain non-violent criminals, including many public officials convicted on corruption charges. It was set to take effect 10 February.
Protests in the streets started soon thereafter, and continued until hundreds of thousands had been protesting in Bucharest and other cities for five consecutive days last week.
The Romanian government relented on Sunday and repealed the decree. However, the government appears to be pursuing similar legislation, leading to a sixth consecutive day of protests.
The Romanian government relented on Sunday and repealed the decree. However, the government appears to be pursuing similar legislation, leading to a sixth consecutive day of protests.
So other countries put their corrupt officials in jail? Interesting idea.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [41 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:09 PM on February 5, 2017 [41 favorites]
They put them in jail, but only until they think you aren't looking anymore and then try to sneak them back out.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Meatbomb at 9:16 PM on February 5, 2017 [7 favorites]
The US does lock up corrupt politicians. See Blagojevich, Rod.
Is one of these links a good run down of the political situation in Romania in general? That is, why did someone think this decree would be a good idea in the first place?
posted by nat at 9:24 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Is one of these links a good run down of the political situation in Romania in general? That is, why did someone think this decree would be a good idea in the first place?
posted by nat at 9:24 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I have to admit I am wondering a fair bit about the rationale behind this myself, but I don't know enough about Romanian history and politics to weed out mis/disinformation. Anyone have a help out there?
posted by Samizdata at 9:31 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Samizdata at 9:31 PM on February 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
This image is insane. Thousands of people "shining a light" on corruption. That's a really awesome protest tactic that should be imitated elsewhere.
posted by zabuni at 9:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [34 favorites]
posted by zabuni at 9:35 PM on February 5, 2017 [34 favorites]
Is one of these links a good run down of the political situation in Romania in general? That is, why did someone think this decree would be a good idea in the first place?
There is a wikipedia entry, 2017 Romanian protests, that goes in some detail. Looks like after initial disapproval, there was a secretly approved change to the Penal Code.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:59 PM on February 5, 2017
There is a wikipedia entry, 2017 Romanian protests, that goes in some detail. Looks like after initial disapproval, there was a secretly approved change to the Penal Code.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:59 PM on February 5, 2017
NYTimes has a decent background article, touching on national history: Romania’s Leaders Back Down, but Protesters Aren’t Going Anywhere.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:08 PM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]
Time lapse leading to moment of "shining light on corruption".
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:17 PM on February 5, 2017 [5 favorites]
My stars, that's inspiring.
posted by greenland at 11:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by greenland at 11:10 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Mod note: One deleted. Let's try to keep this thread as trumpless as possible. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 6:56 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by taz (staff) at 6:56 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
ZeusHumms: NYTimes has a decent background article, touching on national history: Romania’s Leaders Back Down, but Protesters Aren’t Going Anywhere.
And to put the size of these protests in some context, they are the biggest demonstrations since the fall of communism (The Guardian, 5 February 2017).
posted by filthy light thief at 7:11 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
“We have this tradition in Romania of mass movements,” said Cristian Pirvulescu, the dean of the political science department at the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest. “And this was not just a movement against corruption. It’s a fight in defense of democracy.”A (large) clip that seems to capture much of what is at hand: a history of corruption, positive steps to address it up to the highest levels, and an "illiberal" populist movement that is trying to claw back that progress.
The wave of populist election victories in recent years, which has now reached as far as the White House, arguably had its start in Eastern Europe, where leaders like Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary advocated a new form of so-called illiberal democracy that rejected the liberal democracies of Western Europe in favor of a strong, centralized government that swept aside foreign interference and domestic dissent.
The populists came from both ends of the political spectrum — from the right in Hungary and Poland, from the left in Slovakia and the Czech Republic — but shared this vision.
“We are the last country in the region that has resisted this illiberal movement,” Mr. Pirvulescu said.
One of the attitudes that unite populist leaders, he said, is that, having won the election, they feel justified in doing whatever is needed to enact their core policies.
“This is the problem with the illiberals,” Mr. Pirvulescu said. “They say: ‘If we win the election, we are the representatives of the country. We are the masters of the situation.’”
And then, he said, they are stunned at the size of the backlash.
Huge street protests forced a former Romanian prime minister, Victor Ponta, who also came from the current ruling party, the Social Democrats, to resign in November 2015.
Those protests followed a Bucharest nightclub fire in which 64 people died, with critics blaming the disaster on corruption. At the time, Mr. Ponta was already facing corruption charges, the first sitting prime minister in Romanian history to do so.
And to put the size of these protests in some context, they are the biggest demonstrations since the fall of communism (The Guardian, 5 February 2017).
posted by filthy light thief at 7:11 AM on February 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
We've been primarily following this through our friends in Romania. The pictures they're sharing are amazing. Here are photos from the positively enormous protest in Cluj. That shot of the street is Eroilor, the historic street running right through the heart of the city, completely chockablock with people as far as the eye can see. The protester dressed like Vlad Dracul is, I believe, holding a sign saying, "Did you miss me?"
One of the funnier things I've seen I don't speak Romanian well enough to find again, but there is a viral image going around of a fake 199,000 lei note, the joke being that since the limit at which corruption and bribery becomes criminal is 200,000, it's the next logical step, for ease of bribery.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
One of the funnier things I've seen I don't speak Romanian well enough to find again, but there is a viral image going around of a fake 199,000 lei note, the joke being that since the limit at which corruption and bribery becomes criminal is 200,000, it's the next logical step, for ease of bribery.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:19 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Anecdotal explanations from a Romanian on a message board:
(2015)
(2015)
somebody important gets arrested literally everyday, top politicians from all parties, the richest people in the country, bankers, etc and it's getting crazier every day, while the common people wallow in schadenfreude watching the top capitalists getting dragged out of their mansions by masked gendarmesposted by Apocryphon at 7:23 AM on February 6, 2017 [14 favorites]
it's just that the justice system has managed to become independent, and the anticorruption directorate has turned out to be extremely competent, so now they're arresting all the corrupts; it helps that among all those previously caught, a ton ended up snitching so whole networks of corruption were brought down. plus nobody is immune, even family members of the prime minister or former president got arrested; second richest guy in the country, a billionaire, has already been sentenced to prison for bribing a judge (the said judge got a record 22years in that case), while #1 richest guy has several cases he's been indicted in and is on his way to jail
even tho it's been going on for over one year, it's still surreal to watch it go down, especially as in the last few months after Iohannis was elected president the rhythm of arrest has increased to the point that certain parts of the media, politicians and pundits are calling it a "reign of terror" that decapitates the "capitalist elite" and "how can you build capitalism without capitalists" so they're calling for amnesty for politicians and the rich lol
unfortunately the foreign press doesn't care much so there aren't many articles in english about this, there's this one for example http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-eu-31537338 but a ton has happened since that one was wrote a month ago
(2016)
[American poster]: we aren't allowed to put politicians and bankers in jail here.
That used to be the case here too, but EU pressure and political parties fighting eachother into mutual destruction has allowed the judiciary to become fully independent; there's also a new generation of ambitious prosecutors and judges (mostly women) who are incorruptible, or more likely want big scalps to make a name for themselves and get high jobs in the EU courts.
So for the last 3-4 years there's been a long procession of important people being paraded in handcuffs in front of the cameras, and then made to await trial in jail where it's full of gypsies and it's so crowded that they have to sleep 2 in a bed, etc; so to get bail and reduced sentences they started ratting on eachother until the political parties and local captains of industry were decimated
They get jailed, but now we're realizing that the judges can put corrupt ppl in jail but can't replace them, and instead of corrupt and incompetent politicians we're now getting just incompetent ones; so while seeing them in jail is cool, we're only left with the schadenfreude and any changes for the better are probably gonna take a very long time
zabuni, that was an exquisite image, and thank you for sharing. It belongs in an art installation.
These mass demonstrations in various places are the only thing keeping me hopeful about the world right now.
posted by radicalawyer at 7:37 AM on February 6, 2017
These mass demonstrations in various places are the only thing keeping me hopeful about the world right now.
posted by radicalawyer at 7:37 AM on February 6, 2017
The Romanians have a sort of grim confidence in their ability to win the day with these protests. Of course they can topple this entire government; they're the children of the revolution; their parents already toppled the last one.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:41 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:41 AM on February 6, 2017 [8 favorites]
Well, 600k is c. 3 percent of Romania's population. They're not far from Chenoweth's claimed 3.5%.
(For comparison, same amount of the US population would be c. 10 million).
posted by nat at 7:50 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
(For comparison, same amount of the US population would be c. 10 million).
posted by nat at 7:50 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Very long post:
I’ve been thinking about posting this for a few days, but kept stumbling over how to explain to MetaFilter that, in Romania, left is right and right … doesn’t quite exist properly, and where it does, it stands for at least some of the things that, in the US and elsewhere, are … left (things are more complicated than this, of course, but it would take me a PhD’s worth of researching and writing to explain).
A couple of links for background:
On the current protests.
Some historical background:
Pretty soon after the 1989nrevolution it became obvious to a lot of people around the country that the revolution was being hijacked by former communists (it would take way too long to document to Metafilter’s satisfaction why this was a bad thing); most former dissidents who had not been members of the party resigned from the early FSNwhich morphed to become the predecessor of the current government party. There were street protests, which culminated in the Proclamation of Timisoara. Four days later, violent ethnic clashed took place between Romanians and Hungarians in another Romanian town, Targu Mures. Many believe (with evidence which I won’t dig up now) that Targu Mures was instigated, or at least fuelled, by the government to deflect attention from the Timisoara proclamation, which was gaining ground rapidly. They succeeded, and whatever traction the proclamation had had during those couple of days when it occupied center stage was dissipated.
Concurrently, and triggered by the same developments as the Timisoara proclamation, protests were taking place in Bucharest, each violently suppressed by thousands of miners who magically materialized whenever the need arose (Valea Jiului, where the miners came from, is hundreds of kilometres away from Bucharest; the miners requisitioned freight carriages to get to Bucharest, and a lot of voices claim, again, with evidence, that there was serious infiltration of the miners by former Securitate agents). From April to June there was a sort of pre-Occupy Occupy, the Golaniad (loose translation ‘Hooliganiad’). It was a time of incredible fervour, including creative: tons of songs were composed for the ‘Universitate’. Here is the ‘Hooligans’ hymn’ (a bit morbid, since it was edited to commemorate the death of the author, but I included this link because it has Iliescu denigrating the protestors and laying the ground for the future atrocities). A rather literal translation of the hymn. You’d probably need a lot more background than I’ve given here to understand the lyrics. If anyone is curious about the music from around this time, here a couple more clips. Here a film (Romanian). Anyway, the protest was systematically undermined by the then president Ion Iliescu and a good chunk of the media: protestors were presented as hooligans, traitors, and all over the country workers were told they would not get the financial aid they were due (ex. child support) because that money had to be used to feed the people in the Piata Universitatii. This was all done in preparation of the so-called ‘Mineriad’. In June, then, the miners were called to Bucharest to ‘save democracy’, aka to brutalize the protestors. Here some videos and articles (in Romanian, about ‘the woman in the blue dress', an iconic figure from that time) (warning – violence), the first few hits on Google – there are worse videos out there, but I think these illustrate events enough. Iliescu & co thanked the miners at the end of three days filled with violence and brutality, after inciting them to destroy anyone who opposes him (Romanian video, but some of the images in the video don’t need any words). Looping back to the current protests, Iliescu, now honorary president of the government party PSD, has accused the president of inciting the current protests because he spoke out against the ordinance that triggered the protests. Another video relating to the the mineriads (language: Romanian).
I haven’t managed to find any good English language material on the June events; suffice it to say it was a VERY obvious manipulation by the president and the party, easy to decipher even by just sitting in front of the TV screen. I won’t go into the hows and whys here, but will gladly try to give more info if anyone asks for it. Here a text from 1995 discussing the involvement of the Securitate in some of these events.
After opposition was savagely crushed, with many dead (WAY more than the official figures) and many maimed and scarred for life, the party had quite a firm hold on the country until 1996, and then again after 2000. In 2004, the then-opposition won again; in 2007 Romania joined the EU. At this time, I was living abroad and visiting for extended periods of time each year. The changes immediately before and after we joined the EU were dramatic, especially in urban centres. But then the crisis hit, and little by little every bit of progress began to unravel. Where our accession to the EU had been a mixed blessing (for example in some rural areas, where the vast majority of the able-bodied population migrated to the cities/ emigrated, and only the poorest and the old were left), matters worsened significantly. This summer I spent a lot of time traveling the countryside around my town (one of the richer regions in the country) and the poverty and despair you see in many places is absolutely unbearable. Due in part to the recession, in the 2008 elections the PSD staged a bit of a comeback, without, however, gaining majority. Hugely controversial was the ‘belt-tightening’ measure of reducing civil servants’ salaries by 25% - this was seen (I believe rightly) as asking people who were frequently leading quite harsh lives to save the country while the 1% (political and otherwise) continued merrily on their way. A lot of people who had supported the opposition became completely disillusioned, and before last year’s elections many were completely apathetic, declaring that all politicians are alike. This led to very low voter participation in the 2016 election, which very comfortably handed the election to the PSD.
Since the Proclamation of Timisoara and events in Targu Mures, the PSD and its predecessors have been masterfully playing ‘divide et impera’. As an aside, this is for me a huge frustration with western media, some of whom hailed the victory of the PSD as a beacon of social democrat light in an increasingly right-wing Europe. Bullshit, in Romania, the left is right (our communist party was HUGELY nationalistic and xenophobic). I recognize a lot of what is going on now in the US from our own history – it’s the same playbook. In Romanian, we have a saying ‘Aceeasi Marie cu alta palarie’/ ‘The same Mary with a different hat’, aka much of a muchness. Any time the spectre of discontent threatened to rise, or any time they were not in government, the PSD resorted to populism. Romanians against Hungarians, against Roma, against the Saxons (since we have a saxon president), workers against intellectuals (on the basis of intellectuals being elites, though in Romania these ‘elites’ more often than not have the lowest income), urban vs rural; more recently they are whipping up or profiting from nationalist fervour, anti-Semitism, anti-westernism, anti-consumerism, anti-EU sentiments, homophobia, etc. There is a huge difference between the relative innocence in the immediate aftermath of the revolution and where we are now. Then, it seemed we are a people filled with love. As noted above, already in February/ March of 1990 they managed to whip up chauvinism and xenophobia, now it's a freefall of hatred and bogotry.
***
The current protests:
Are about Emergency Ordinance (OUG) 13/ 2017, but not only (there are others, such as OUG 9, particularly art. 7/3 regarding the suspension of budgetary limits – also long and complicated, so I won’t go into it). Trying to summarize: the ordinance, in conjunction with other acts of government, decriminalizes stealing on the job, provided that each individual instance of stealing is under 200,000 RON (cca 40,000 EURO – keep in mind that this is ten times more than most people earn in a year), further, it completely decriminalizes negligence on the job and abuse of power if it is in the form of laws. For Romanian-speakers, here are the most contentious paragraphs:
(1) Fapta funcţionarului public care, în exercitarea atribuţiilor de serviciu, cu ştiinţă, îndeplineşte un act prin încălcarea unor dispoziţii exprese dintr-o lege, o ordonanţă sau o ordonanţă de urgenţă a Guvernului sau nu îndeplineşte un act prevăzut de dispoziţiile exprese dintr-o lege, o ordonanţă sau o ordonanţă de urgenţă a Guvernului şi prin aceasta cauzează o pagubă materială mai mare de 200.000 lei ori o vătămare gravă, certă şi efectivă a drepturilor sau intereselor legitime ale unei persoane fizice sau juridice, astfel cum sunt prevăzute şi garantate de legile în vigoare, se pedepseşte cu închisoare de la 6 luni la 3 ani sau cu amendă.
(2) Fapta funcţionarului public care, în exercitarea serviciului, îngrădeşte exercitarea unui drept al unei persoane ori creează pentru aceasta o situaţie de inferioritate pe temei de rasă, naţionalitate, origine etnică, limbă, religie, sex, orientare sexuală, apartenenţă politică, avere, vârstă, dizabilitate, boală cronică necontagioasă sau infecţie HIV/SIDA se pedepseşte cu închisoare de la o lună la un an sau cu amendă.
(3) Dispoziţiile alin. (1) şi (2) nu se aplică în cazul emiterii, aprobării sau adoptării actelor normative."
For many people, pp 3 more or less opens the door to dictatorship.
***
About the protests:
So I went to each of the six big protests in my town after they issued the ordinance. There had been much smaller protests in our main town square during the days before, and a friend of mine and I had decided to go that evening, but then we ended up feeling way too tired and decided to stay home after all. Then the announcement came and we concomitantly texted each other at, like, 11.20 pm ‘Are we going?’ So we went.
When we arrived, there were around 200 people there, quite a few with flags. We bumped into an acquaintance and stuck with him throughout, which turned out to be a good idea, 'cause the guy had a booming voice so with him we managed to start quite a few chants along the way. We marched for three hours, a route that had been consecrated during the revolution and which leads through a few major residential neighbourhoods. After half an hour we were more than 3,000; by the end of the protest, closer to 10,000. Most of these people had been ready to go to bed and some still seemed a bit bemused to be in their pyjamas one minute and marching in the streets the next. Chants: ‘At night, like thieves’, ‘United/ we save/ all of Romania’, ‘Thieves, thieves’, ‘Ole,ole/ a sincere desire/ for a free Romania’/ ‘PSD/ red plague’ etc. (all of these rhyme/ scan in Romanian) and many more, all untranslatable (I remember many more for Romanian-speakers out there). A lot of signs/ chants were puns on the most famous two words to come from the government: ‘alta intrebare’ (‘another question’), with which the minister of justice tried to deflect every question during his press conference (apparently, he uttered the words 24 times during the press conference). Here’s a short video on this, my favourite is at 1: 31: a photo of Dragnea (the president of the party) behind bars captioned ‘altu intre bare’ (which means ‘another one behind bars’).
Each consecutive night in my town, our numbers swelled; 15,000-ish the second night, then regularly more then 20-25,000, and 45.000 last night (most of the people join en route; the long route is almost 10 km long, so if this goes on I’m all set for my fitness regime). Here’s a fast motion recording of the crowd at the beginning of the route on one of the early days. This in a town of less than 145,000! Not counting all those who participated from their windows and balconies, or who didn’t march, but just stood in front of their houses and joined in the chants.
And EVERYBODY participates. Every night bar the first the march is full of kids (here about the children’s protest) and older people. Dogs take part, too.
We are incredibly inspired by protests in the US, quite literally, too; there are a lot of posters adapted from there. The one I remember is the ‘Pornhub: rich white man f***s the entire country at once’. Every day I’ve been messaging with a US friend of mine, going to our respective protests.
I’ve tons of other links in Romanian (English-language media is mostly rubbish on the protests); if you want stuff in Romanian, MeMail me.
My favourite lights-on video.
One of the most poignant photos. It reads, on the left, during the revolution: ‘Our children will be free’, and on the right, now ‘The children of the revolution are here’.
Another favourite - Soros-related accusations and fear-mongering are well-tested tools in the PSD playbook (already deployed in 1990, when the predecessors of the current government party did their best to fuel nationalistic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hungarian and anti-western feelings in order to stay in power, and, of course, Soros, the capitalist Hungarian Jew is/ was an incredible gift, like, if he didn’t exist, you’d have to make him up). For months now Soros has been accused by supporters of the PSD, including virulently nationalistic groups, of paying anti-Romanian forces to do … god knows what, and the current protests are no exception. The sign reads: ‘Soros. If you see this, we haven’t gotten the money yet.’
There would be more to say, but I have to go out.
posted by miorita at 7:54 AM on February 6, 2017 [68 favorites]
I’ve been thinking about posting this for a few days, but kept stumbling over how to explain to MetaFilter that, in Romania, left is right and right … doesn’t quite exist properly, and where it does, it stands for at least some of the things that, in the US and elsewhere, are … left (things are more complicated than this, of course, but it would take me a PhD’s worth of researching and writing to explain).
A couple of links for background:
On the current protests.
Some historical background:
Pretty soon after the 1989nrevolution it became obvious to a lot of people around the country that the revolution was being hijacked by former communists (it would take way too long to document to Metafilter’s satisfaction why this was a bad thing); most former dissidents who had not been members of the party resigned from the early FSNwhich morphed to become the predecessor of the current government party. There were street protests, which culminated in the Proclamation of Timisoara. Four days later, violent ethnic clashed took place between Romanians and Hungarians in another Romanian town, Targu Mures. Many believe (with evidence which I won’t dig up now) that Targu Mures was instigated, or at least fuelled, by the government to deflect attention from the Timisoara proclamation, which was gaining ground rapidly. They succeeded, and whatever traction the proclamation had had during those couple of days when it occupied center stage was dissipated.
Concurrently, and triggered by the same developments as the Timisoara proclamation, protests were taking place in Bucharest, each violently suppressed by thousands of miners who magically materialized whenever the need arose (Valea Jiului, where the miners came from, is hundreds of kilometres away from Bucharest; the miners requisitioned freight carriages to get to Bucharest, and a lot of voices claim, again, with evidence, that there was serious infiltration of the miners by former Securitate agents). From April to June there was a sort of pre-Occupy Occupy, the Golaniad (loose translation ‘Hooliganiad’). It was a time of incredible fervour, including creative: tons of songs were composed for the ‘Universitate’. Here is the ‘Hooligans’ hymn’ (a bit morbid, since it was edited to commemorate the death of the author, but I included this link because it has Iliescu denigrating the protestors and laying the ground for the future atrocities). A rather literal translation of the hymn. You’d probably need a lot more background than I’ve given here to understand the lyrics. If anyone is curious about the music from around this time, here a couple more clips. Here a film (Romanian). Anyway, the protest was systematically undermined by the then president Ion Iliescu and a good chunk of the media: protestors were presented as hooligans, traitors, and all over the country workers were told they would not get the financial aid they were due (ex. child support) because that money had to be used to feed the people in the Piata Universitatii. This was all done in preparation of the so-called ‘Mineriad’. In June, then, the miners were called to Bucharest to ‘save democracy’, aka to brutalize the protestors. Here some videos and articles (in Romanian, about ‘the woman in the blue dress', an iconic figure from that time) (warning – violence), the first few hits on Google – there are worse videos out there, but I think these illustrate events enough. Iliescu & co thanked the miners at the end of three days filled with violence and brutality, after inciting them to destroy anyone who opposes him (Romanian video, but some of the images in the video don’t need any words). Looping back to the current protests, Iliescu, now honorary president of the government party PSD, has accused the president of inciting the current protests because he spoke out against the ordinance that triggered the protests. Another video relating to the the mineriads (language: Romanian).
I haven’t managed to find any good English language material on the June events; suffice it to say it was a VERY obvious manipulation by the president and the party, easy to decipher even by just sitting in front of the TV screen. I won’t go into the hows and whys here, but will gladly try to give more info if anyone asks for it. Here a text from 1995 discussing the involvement of the Securitate in some of these events.
After opposition was savagely crushed, with many dead (WAY more than the official figures) and many maimed and scarred for life, the party had quite a firm hold on the country until 1996, and then again after 2000. In 2004, the then-opposition won again; in 2007 Romania joined the EU. At this time, I was living abroad and visiting for extended periods of time each year. The changes immediately before and after we joined the EU were dramatic, especially in urban centres. But then the crisis hit, and little by little every bit of progress began to unravel. Where our accession to the EU had been a mixed blessing (for example in some rural areas, where the vast majority of the able-bodied population migrated to the cities/ emigrated, and only the poorest and the old were left), matters worsened significantly. This summer I spent a lot of time traveling the countryside around my town (one of the richer regions in the country) and the poverty and despair you see in many places is absolutely unbearable. Due in part to the recession, in the 2008 elections the PSD staged a bit of a comeback, without, however, gaining majority. Hugely controversial was the ‘belt-tightening’ measure of reducing civil servants’ salaries by 25% - this was seen (I believe rightly) as asking people who were frequently leading quite harsh lives to save the country while the 1% (political and otherwise) continued merrily on their way. A lot of people who had supported the opposition became completely disillusioned, and before last year’s elections many were completely apathetic, declaring that all politicians are alike. This led to very low voter participation in the 2016 election, which very comfortably handed the election to the PSD.
Since the Proclamation of Timisoara and events in Targu Mures, the PSD and its predecessors have been masterfully playing ‘divide et impera’. As an aside, this is for me a huge frustration with western media, some of whom hailed the victory of the PSD as a beacon of social democrat light in an increasingly right-wing Europe. Bullshit, in Romania, the left is right (our communist party was HUGELY nationalistic and xenophobic). I recognize a lot of what is going on now in the US from our own history – it’s the same playbook. In Romanian, we have a saying ‘Aceeasi Marie cu alta palarie’/ ‘The same Mary with a different hat’, aka much of a muchness. Any time the spectre of discontent threatened to rise, or any time they were not in government, the PSD resorted to populism. Romanians against Hungarians, against Roma, against the Saxons (since we have a saxon president), workers against intellectuals (on the basis of intellectuals being elites, though in Romania these ‘elites’ more often than not have the lowest income), urban vs rural; more recently they are whipping up or profiting from nationalist fervour, anti-Semitism, anti-westernism, anti-consumerism, anti-EU sentiments, homophobia, etc. There is a huge difference between the relative innocence in the immediate aftermath of the revolution and where we are now. Then, it seemed we are a people filled with love. As noted above, already in February/ March of 1990 they managed to whip up chauvinism and xenophobia, now it's a freefall of hatred and bogotry.
***
The current protests:
Are about Emergency Ordinance (OUG) 13/ 2017, but not only (there are others, such as OUG 9, particularly art. 7/3 regarding the suspension of budgetary limits – also long and complicated, so I won’t go into it). Trying to summarize: the ordinance, in conjunction with other acts of government, decriminalizes stealing on the job, provided that each individual instance of stealing is under 200,000 RON (cca 40,000 EURO – keep in mind that this is ten times more than most people earn in a year), further, it completely decriminalizes negligence on the job and abuse of power if it is in the form of laws. For Romanian-speakers, here are the most contentious paragraphs:
(1) Fapta funcţionarului public care, în exercitarea atribuţiilor de serviciu, cu ştiinţă, îndeplineşte un act prin încălcarea unor dispoziţii exprese dintr-o lege, o ordonanţă sau o ordonanţă de urgenţă a Guvernului sau nu îndeplineşte un act prevăzut de dispoziţiile exprese dintr-o lege, o ordonanţă sau o ordonanţă de urgenţă a Guvernului şi prin aceasta cauzează o pagubă materială mai mare de 200.000 lei ori o vătămare gravă, certă şi efectivă a drepturilor sau intereselor legitime ale unei persoane fizice sau juridice, astfel cum sunt prevăzute şi garantate de legile în vigoare, se pedepseşte cu închisoare de la 6 luni la 3 ani sau cu amendă.
(2) Fapta funcţionarului public care, în exercitarea serviciului, îngrădeşte exercitarea unui drept al unei persoane ori creează pentru aceasta o situaţie de inferioritate pe temei de rasă, naţionalitate, origine etnică, limbă, religie, sex, orientare sexuală, apartenenţă politică, avere, vârstă, dizabilitate, boală cronică necontagioasă sau infecţie HIV/SIDA se pedepseşte cu închisoare de la o lună la un an sau cu amendă.
(3) Dispoziţiile alin. (1) şi (2) nu se aplică în cazul emiterii, aprobării sau adoptării actelor normative."
For many people, pp 3 more or less opens the door to dictatorship.
***
About the protests:
So I went to each of the six big protests in my town after they issued the ordinance. There had been much smaller protests in our main town square during the days before, and a friend of mine and I had decided to go that evening, but then we ended up feeling way too tired and decided to stay home after all. Then the announcement came and we concomitantly texted each other at, like, 11.20 pm ‘Are we going?’ So we went.
When we arrived, there were around 200 people there, quite a few with flags. We bumped into an acquaintance and stuck with him throughout, which turned out to be a good idea, 'cause the guy had a booming voice so with him we managed to start quite a few chants along the way. We marched for three hours, a route that had been consecrated during the revolution and which leads through a few major residential neighbourhoods. After half an hour we were more than 3,000; by the end of the protest, closer to 10,000. Most of these people had been ready to go to bed and some still seemed a bit bemused to be in their pyjamas one minute and marching in the streets the next. Chants: ‘At night, like thieves’, ‘United/ we save/ all of Romania’, ‘Thieves, thieves’, ‘Ole,ole/ a sincere desire/ for a free Romania’/ ‘PSD/ red plague’ etc. (all of these rhyme/ scan in Romanian) and many more, all untranslatable (I remember many more for Romanian-speakers out there). A lot of signs/ chants were puns on the most famous two words to come from the government: ‘alta intrebare’ (‘another question’), with which the minister of justice tried to deflect every question during his press conference (apparently, he uttered the words 24 times during the press conference). Here’s a short video on this, my favourite is at 1: 31: a photo of Dragnea (the president of the party) behind bars captioned ‘altu intre bare’ (which means ‘another one behind bars’).
Each consecutive night in my town, our numbers swelled; 15,000-ish the second night, then regularly more then 20-25,000, and 45.000 last night (most of the people join en route; the long route is almost 10 km long, so if this goes on I’m all set for my fitness regime). Here’s a fast motion recording of the crowd at the beginning of the route on one of the early days. This in a town of less than 145,000! Not counting all those who participated from their windows and balconies, or who didn’t march, but just stood in front of their houses and joined in the chants.
And EVERYBODY participates. Every night bar the first the march is full of kids (here about the children’s protest) and older people. Dogs take part, too.
We are incredibly inspired by protests in the US, quite literally, too; there are a lot of posters adapted from there. The one I remember is the ‘Pornhub: rich white man f***s the entire country at once’. Every day I’ve been messaging with a US friend of mine, going to our respective protests.
I’ve tons of other links in Romanian (English-language media is mostly rubbish on the protests); if you want stuff in Romanian, MeMail me.
My favourite lights-on video.
One of the most poignant photos. It reads, on the left, during the revolution: ‘Our children will be free’, and on the right, now ‘The children of the revolution are here’.
Another favourite - Soros-related accusations and fear-mongering are well-tested tools in the PSD playbook (already deployed in 1990, when the predecessors of the current government party did their best to fuel nationalistic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hungarian and anti-western feelings in order to stay in power, and, of course, Soros, the capitalist Hungarian Jew is/ was an incredible gift, like, if he didn’t exist, you’d have to make him up). For months now Soros has been accused by supporters of the PSD, including virulently nationalistic groups, of paying anti-Romanian forces to do … god knows what, and the current protests are no exception. The sign reads: ‘Soros. If you see this, we haven’t gotten the money yet.’
There would be more to say, but I have to go out.
posted by miorita at 7:54 AM on February 6, 2017 [68 favorites]
Ah here it is: the 199,000 lei note, to simplify corrupt transactions for public servants.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:58 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
This image is insane. Thousands of people "shining a light" on corruption. That's a really awesome protest tactic that should be imitated elsewhere.
It's a very dramatic and powerful tactic. It has been used before, in 2014 protests in Hong Kong, and to great effect during the The Ukrainian (Euro)Maidan protests in Kyiv in 2014.
posted by Kabanos at 8:03 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
It's a very dramatic and powerful tactic. It has been used before, in 2014 protests in Hong Kong, and to great effect during the The Ukrainian (Euro)Maidan protests in Kyiv in 2014.
posted by Kabanos at 8:03 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
That was fantastic miorita, thank you for that.
Keep on keeping the faith in Sibiu!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:05 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Keep on keeping the faith in Sibiu!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:05 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Another link I forgot to include in the flurry above: the difference between the revolution and current protests. Sadly, like the US, we are a very divided country (hence the landslide victory a couple of months ago by the party that is now so hotly contested).
posted by miorita at 8:05 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by miorita at 8:05 AM on February 6, 2017 [3 favorites]
Thank you miorita, I know how difficult (and frustrating) it can be to explain the histories and nuances of current-day political turmoil in countries that are usually outside the Western (North American) media radar. I very much appreciate your effort.
Please keep us up to date, as much as your time and energy will allow!
posted by Kabanos at 8:12 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Please keep us up to date, as much as your time and energy will allow!
posted by Kabanos at 8:12 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Keep on keeping the faith in Sibiu!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:05 AM on February 6 [1 favorite −] Favorite added! [!]
Thanks, DirtyOldTown, I'm feeling such a cocktail of emotions that I'm amazed I'm not fizzing around!
BTW, I'd have never made it out without Metafilter. I'm hugely introverted and hate crowds, plus I'm normally rather cynical. But after seeing all the metafilter introverts take to their phones/ the streets, it just kind of woke something in me that was lying dormant.
posted by miorita at 8:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:05 AM on February 6 [1 favorite −] Favorite added! [!]
Thanks, DirtyOldTown, I'm feeling such a cocktail of emotions that I'm amazed I'm not fizzing around!
BTW, I'd have never made it out without Metafilter. I'm hugely introverted and hate crowds, plus I'm normally rather cynical. But after seeing all the metafilter introverts take to their phones/ the streets, it just kind of woke something in me that was lying dormant.
posted by miorita at 8:16 AM on February 6, 2017 [15 favorites]
Thanks, miorita!
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:24 AM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
"I'm not even Romanian, but jeez..."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:42 AM on February 6, 2017 [5 favorites]
Thank you miorita! I know a little of Romania's history, but your posts have given me so much more context and knowledge. I've been watching the protests through social media, and they're inspiring me right back!
posted by kalimac at 7:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by kalimac at 7:20 PM on February 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
The Romanian Protests: Why have hundreds of thousands of Romanians taken to the streets this month against a nominally center-left government?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:22 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:22 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by wenestvedt at 8:43 PM on February 5, 2017 [2 favorites]