On the Streets: The People’s Protest in Romania
On the Streets: The People’s Protest in Romania
When Romanian politicians tried to legislate impunity for corruption, hundreds of thousands of people across the country rose up in sharp, creative, tech-savvy protest.
By Marta Catalano・October 29, 2019・12 minutes
At the end of 2017, governing politicians in Romania thought an emergency measure to pardon their mischief would pass largely unnoticed. But their new policies ignited protests that shook the country for a whole year. 500,000 Romanians took to the streets in the freezing winter of 2017, gathering in the biggest mass protest in the country since the fall of communism in 1989. 150,000 people turned out in Bucharest alone.
The protests came as a response to a law proposed by the governing Social Democratic Party (PSD) that would have granted amnesty for prisoners jailed for corruption with penalties of less than €45,000 ($48,000). The law would have freed several officials, party members, and supporters currently in jail for corruption, and prevented the prosecution of future politicians. The legislation would have also nullified accusations against the party leader, Liviu Dragnea, who in June was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for abuse of office and who is also currently facing charges for fraud of about €24,000 ($26,000). Dragnea has been recently banned from entering the US due to his his long-term corrupt politics.
While the protests were marred by clashes between police and activists, the blend of creativity, solidarity, sense of community, and humor defined and set them apart from other European protests in the past few years, inspiring thousands of Romanians living abroad to travel back home to participate. The quickness and popularity of the movement wouldn’t have been as strong or effective without the help of social media. People organized meetings and connected with each other under the hashtag #rezist to share information, pictures, and logistics. In December 2017, activists crowdfunded €4,500 to buy geo-localized adverts on Facebook and Google, so that those browsing the internet within one square kilometer of Romania’s parliament building would see on their feed protest-related messages like “we’re watching you” or “History will remember you as the protectors of thieves, because you voted to destroy the justice system.”
Photo by Albert Dobrin
And it is precisely thanks to the wide web and social networks that protesters’ creativity can now be seen everywhere. On February 12, 2017 in Bucharest, protesters recreated a giant Romanian flag using light from their mobile phones in Piața Victoriei, the headquarters of the Romanian Parliament. The picture was widely shared on social media and made headlines in foreign press around the world. Alongside the flag, among the crowd were signs reading "It's so bad even the introverts are here,” “I see smarter cabinets at IKEA,” and “Error 2017!! Democracy not found.”
The activities and slogans were so popular and so abundant that after the protests ended, Curtea Veche Publishing, a Romanian publishing house, released a book with a selection of some of the best photographs, slogans, statements, and posters created by protest participants.
The movement renewed Romania’s sense of community. People distributed plastic whistles for protestors to make noise, shared tea and coffees with each other, or offered hot food for free. People on Facebook offered accommodation and dinner for those who came to protest from other cities, and people took time off work, sometimes joining in with their families and children. Hostels gave free rooms for those travelling all the way to Bucharest to attend the demonstrations, cafes offered free food and drinks, and the telecommunications corporation Orange set up free Wifi around protest locations. Corner Shop, a graffiti shop in Bucharest, offered free space and paint so activists could create their own protest messages. It felt palpably different from other protests in Europe. Yes, humor and disruption also marked big protests like those for Brexit and the #MeToo movement. But, in Romania, fun and disruption met collaboration and creativity. It wasn’t just about signs, noise and resistance. It was about signs, noise resistance and people being there for one another.
August 10: The Diaspora Comes Home
#rezist was also global phenomenon for Romanian citizens living abroad, with protests organized in hundreds of cities around the world. News of the protests, events, and pictures were shared widely on social media under the hashtag, almost becoming a living internet meme. Romanians from the far corners of the world shared pictures of themselves holding anti-government signs - including a Romanian navy officer protesting on a boat in Antarctica.
Romania has one of the biggest diasporas in the world, and Romanians make up the largest migrant population in the European Union (EU) according to Eurostat. As the protests continued and dissent intensified on social media, Romanians living abroad travelled in great numbers back to Bucharest. Events often included children, seniors, and families.
Photo by Alert Dobrin
A protest for August 10, 2018 was announced on Facebook as an event—the Diaspora vine la Bucuresti (‘The Diaspora comes to Bucharest’). As many as 100,000 people gathered in Piața Victoriei in Bucharest, where activists were prepared to be as peaceful and determined as they had been in the previous months. This time it wasn’t just about repealing the controversial law. They all wanted one thing: for the current government to resign and for the rule of law to be restored. But on that day, police, who were there as a security measure, responded with tear gas and water cannons after a group of protesters tried to break through the police cordon.
The brutality sent shockwaves through Romanians in the country and those watching from abroad. Romanians who could not travel back home organized themselves in their own cities. From Spain to Washington D.C., they gathered, made banners, and joined organized protests. The government tried to downplay the number of protesters during national interviews and public addresses, and encouraged party supporters to set up counter protests, which took place in front of the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest in smaller numbers.
The unrest of thousands of Romanians wasn’t in vain: the government eventually decided to repeal the corruption forgiveness proposal that kicked off the agitation, but the long term situation remains thorny. Romanians did not exactly get what they were campaigning for—the end of endemic corruption in the country’s political system, and the head of government’s resignation. The PSD still has support from a substantial group of voters, especially in the countryside and among senior citizens, enraptured with promises like marginal pension increases.
Political scholars and commentators have argued that the protests have failed in creating long lasting changes in Romania, but #rezist and everything that came with it left a mark in the country, connecting people emotionally and morally.
The real challenge for those who want to see change in Romania is to reach out to voters from the countryside, together with those who hold more socially conservative beliefs. But the current lack of a strong and coherent opposition to the PSD party means that citizens by large still see the whole political machine as corrupt, and tensions persist.
#rezist and everything that came with it left a mark in the country, connecting people emotionally and morally.
Photo by Albert Dobrin
And yet, things are starting to move forward. The anti-corruption movement in the region of Transylvania has organized civic education events called “agoras,” where experts are invited to talk about justice and the rule of law. And, together with people’s renewed awareness and social activism (and the European elections just around the corner), there is a chance for things to take a different turn. At the European elections on May 26, 2019, Romania voted in a referendum launched by President Klaus Iohannis on two key issues: whether they want their country to be run by convicted politicians, and whether the government should still have the power to take over the judiciary through emergency decrees, like they did in 2017 and 2018.
The elections were record-setting for any European election, with a 49% turnout, and saw the ruling Social Democrats (PSD) face a significant defeat. Through the referendum, more than 80% of the voters declared themselves in favor of prohibiting political amnesties for corruption offenses and of forbidding the government from reforming the justice system by emergency ordinances. However, in July, the Romanian Court rejected the proposed ban on pardoning political amnesties for corruption offenses, overlooking the referendum results and fueling discontent.
So, whether it be through votes, protests, or collaboration, for Romanians at home and abroad, the fight continues. ❖
More in Current Affairs
