Romanian Maidan: What Prompted Half a Million People to Take to the Streets

With about 500,000 people taking to the streets across Romania on Sunday, RIA Novosti political analyst Andrey Veselov looks into what became the largest street protest in the country since the fall of Communist rule there in 1989.

RIA Novosti political analyst Andrey Veselov recalled that protests in Romania started on January 19 and reached their peak last Sunday, with around 500,000 people reportedly taking to the streets across the country, including the capital Bucharest where at least 300,000 people were protesting.

Amid the unrest, Bucharest police used tear gas against protesters, who threw firecrackers and smoke bombs at officers. Three policemen and two protesters were reported to have been injured in clashes.

Return of the Social Democrats

The protests began shortly after the parliamentary elections which saw the victory of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Sorin Grindeanu candidate becoming Romanian Prime Minister.

The PSD's return came after the Social Democrats' government had to resign following a horrendous fire in a Bucharest nightclub in which 58 people died in November 2015.  Investigators found out that PSD members had turned a blind eye to safety violations made by the club's owners.

Taking power in Romania at the time was the opposition National Liberal Party (PNL), who finally yielded to the PSD due to their unpopular austerity measures and permanent coordination of their actions with the European bureaucracy.

Pardon for corrupt officials

Fueling the protests was the Romanian government's recent decision to adopt a controversial emergency law decriminalizing abuse of power and corruption offenses by public officials.

The decree, which was set to take effect beginning February 10, decriminalized cases of official misconduct in which the damages amounted to less than 200,000 lei (about $47,680 US), and provided for pardons for those convicted to less than five years in prison.

The country's new government, elected in December, explained that the law was necessary to help align the criminal code with rulings by the Constitutional Court.

But opposition activists insisted that PSD ministers simply want to "forgive" their own party members accused of corruption crimes.

One official who was expected to benefit directly from the new law was Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the Social Democratic Party and President of the Chamber of Deputies, Romania's lower house of parliament.

Creative ENG #protest banners. Favs: "Live long &…" "No country…" #romanianprotests #Romania #corruption pic.twitter.com/qSBa74GiQ8

— Valentina Dimulescu (@ValDimulescu) 4 февраля 2017 г.

Dragnea was caught defrauding the state to the equivalent of about $25,880, and the decree would have freed him from criminal charges.

Romania split in two

On Saturday evening, Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu told local media that "Romania seems broken in two" and that the government "will have an emergency meeting to revoke this ordinance."

"I do not want to divide Romania. Romania can't be split into two. Right now Romania seems broken in two. My last desire is to witness this," Grindeanu said.

Last week, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said that he was going to challenge the new government decree at the Constitutional Court, while  Romania's major opposition parties, including Save Romania Union and the National Liberal Party, promised to file a no-confidence motion against the government later this week.

Meanwhile, Florin Jianu, Minister of Business, Trade and Entrepreneurship, announced his resignation in what he said was an "ethical" decision.

"Not for my professional honesty, my conscience is clean on that front, but for my child. Am I going to tell him his father was a coward and supported actions he does not believe in, or that he chose to walk away from a story that isn't his?" he wrote on his Facebook page.

On Sunday, Romanian television network Digi24 reported that the government had moved forward and repealed the law amid the opposition's demands that the government should step down and early elections should be held.

Witty/sad #protest banner #anticorruption #romanianprotests 3d day #romania pic.twitter.com/zhd6vGmhAR

— Valentina Dimulescu (@ValDimulescu) 2 февраля 2017 г.

The PSD insists that all this indicates the opposition's push for seizing power in Romania.

"The scope, organization and funding of the demonstrations show that the protests are coordinated by professionals," Grindeanu said.

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