About 100,000 people stage anti-corruption protests in Romania

[TheJoanneJoker 3,866]

Tens of thousands of Romanians on Saturday protested against legislation passed by Parliament which critics say will make it harder to prosecute crime and high-level corruption.

Protesters briefly scuffled with riot police as they massed in Bucharest's University Square. Protesters shouted: "Thieves, thieves!" and "Resign!" and blew whistles and waved Romanian flags. They then marched toward Parliament.

Under a draft bill, abuse of office would no longer be a criminal offence if the sums involved were less than €200,000 (£176,000). The final text has not been adopted by the senate, following its adoption in the lower house earlier this month.

Monica Macovei, who was an architect of Romania’s anti-corruption policy when she was justice minister from 2004-07, said changes introduced to bring the country into the EU were being dismantled.

She said recent changes to the judicial system and the proposed decriminalisation of some corruption offences constituted an unprecedented assault on the rule of law since Romania joined the EU in 2007. “There has been backwards and forwards, but this is worse.”

There are over 70,000 people protesting in Bucharest right now, in front of The Palace of the Parliament, and over 30,000 in the rest of the country.

 

To be updated

Incidents

Spoiler

Around 6:20 PM, when there were only ~2.000 protesters in the Bucharest University Square, the police entered the local subway and didn't allow people who arrived at the protest to join the other protesters outside, which is abusive and illegal. There were dozens on the people held by the police in the local subway. This resulted in violence, as many people tried to fight the police in the subway which led to the police to retreat and let the people join the protest.

 

Around 6:35 PM, the people in the street took down the fences put by the police and the protesters occupied the whole boulevard. At this time, more and more people joined the protest which quickly became a massive one, as over 70.000 people marched in Bucharest.

 

[TheJoanneJoker 3,866]

On February 5th, 2017, the biggest protests since the 1989 revolution took place in Romania, when about 300.000 people protested in Bucharest alone, and other 300.000 people around the rest of the country. Official numbers say there were 500-600k people in the streets that night.

[Citrom 652]

15 minutes ago, Beytwice said:

Tens of thousands of Romanians on Saturday protested against legislation passed by Parliament which critics say will make it harder to prosecute crime and high-level corruption.

Protesters briefly scuffled with riot police as they massed in Bucharest's University Square. Protesters shouted: "Thieves, thieves!" and "Resign!" and blew whistles and waved Romanian flags. They then marched toward Parliament.

Under a draft bill, abuse of office would no longer be a criminal offence if the sums involved were less than €200,000 (£176,000). The final text has not been adopted by the senate, following its adoption in the lower house earlier this month.

Monica Macovei, who was an architect of Romania’s anti-corruption policy when she was justice minister from 2004-07, said changes introduced to bring the country into the EU were being dismantled.

She said recent changes to the judicial system and the proposed decriminalisation of some corruption offences constituted an unprecedented assault on the rule of law since Romania joined the EU in 2007. “There has been backwards and forwards, but this is worse.”

There are over 70,000 people protesting in Bucharest right now, in front of The Palace of the Parliament, and over 30,000 in the rest of the country.

 

To be updated

hmm I hope it will be successful  

Greetings from Hungary 

Are you Romanian or live in Transylvania?  

[TheJoanneJoker 3,866]

27 minutes ago, Sistren said:

hmm I hope it will be successful  

Greetings from Hungary 

Are you Romanian or live in Transylvania?  

I'm Romanian. Thanks

[calmar 22,808]

What a stupid and obvious law that is. Good for them for actually protesting something, unlike Americans. Haven't seen anything really large here since the March for Science, and before that The Women's March. Iirc both of those went international as well. 

[TheJoanneJoker 3,866]

1 minute ago, calmar said:

What a stupid and obvious law that is. Good for them for actually protesting something, unlike Americans. Haven't seen anything really large here since the March for Science, and before that The Women's March. Iirc both of those went international as well. 

In 2017, 600.000 people took the streets here in Romania. And the population of Romania is about 19.000.000

[calmar 22,808]

2 minutes ago, Beytwice said:

In 2017, 600.000 people took the streets here in Romania. And the population of Romania is about 19.000.000

For us to have a similar ratio we'd have to borrow the entire population of Portugal and have them demonstrate  

[TheJoanneJoker 3,866]

Updated the post, added the isolated violent incidents that happened earlier today.

[Edonis 28,974]

9 minutes ago, calmar said:

What a stupid and obvious law that is. Good for them for actually protesting something, unlike Americans. Haven't seen anything really large here since the March for Science, and before that The Women's March. Iirc both of those went international as well. 

There’s a woman’s march going on right now 

OT: This is very interesting to see. Wonder how this will impact future the decision or not to go forth with that drafted bill. 

[TheJoanneJoker 3,866]

Just now, Edonis said:

Wonder how this will impact future the decision or not to go forth with that drafted bill. 

I honestly don't have high expectations, since we changed 3 governments during the last year alone.

The country is ruled by an extremely corrupt party and they want to blindfold the Justice System, as they want to put political control over Justice - because most of the party is corrupt.

We need external support ASAP, the country is going downhill extremely quickly.

[Edonis 28,974]

4 minutes ago, Beytwice said:

I honestly don't have high expectations, since we changed 3 governments during the last year alone.

The country is ruled by an extremely corrupt party and they want to blindfold the Justice System, as they want to put political control over Justice - because most of the party is corrupt.

We need external support ASAP, the country is going downhill extremely quickly.

I’m wondering if there will be external support though? I’m not that well versed in Romanian politics and whatnot, so I’m not sure what political ties this country holds with other countries. Is it realistic that someone external will step in to help?

[IAmNotHere1997 25,824]

I WANNA GO THERE AND SCREAM BUY ARTPOP FROM CĂRTUREŞTI

[TheJoanneJoker 3,866]

Some changes, if that bill passes, would mean that:

Any video tape evidence is equal to 0

For example, if somebody sees a man beating up his wife in public and uses their phone to record it and report it to the police, the police can't do anything because video tapes aren't a legal proof anymore.

At court, the victim has to face their attacker when they file a statement

So basically, this means that, for example, a rape victim has to face their attacker as they file their statement in court.

Any prejudice under 42.896€ caused by work abuse will be legal

The leader of the political party is accused of abuse at the workplace, and guess what, this law would help him get rid of the accusations.

And many other miserable things. We need other countries' pressure in Romania to start new political elections as soon as possible!

[TheJoanneJoker 3,866]

4 minutes ago, Edonis said:

. Is it realistic that someone external will step in to help?

Probably the European Union, as they criticised these bills many times and they plan to sanction Romania over these bills. We need more and more pressure over our Gov.

[FalsePromise 424]

Romania's neighbors should learn from it! In Serbia we're so deep in corruption, starting from the president and than entire government, health care system etc etc. A shithole, tho food is cheap and mostly organic and nature is beautiful