Tragedy and Change
The fall of the Ponta government did not quell protests in Romania. Tens of thousands of people have been in the streets for the last few nights, demanding an end to corruption
Bogdan Matei, 06.11.2015, 14:35
In Bucharest, desperation, pain and horror turned to anger. The anger turned to change, change that many desired, but few dared think possible. After last Fridays fire that killed over 30 people in a Bucharest club, leaving 150 injured, Romanians observed three days of national mourning of an exemplary manner.
Starting Tuesday, however, the people took to the streets, striking fear in the people in power. Spontaneous, fed by social media, without visible leaders, without authorization from the authorities, protest marches brought out to the street tens of thousands of people in all major cities. Most of them young, the protesters expressed in a noisy, cutting, sarcastic, but non-violent way their revolt at a political class they see as cynical, feckless and corrupt. One of the most popular slogans of the marches was ‘Corruption Kills!, uttered against both local and national administrations.
On Wednesday, Social Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who has been under investigation for corruption since summer, along with his entire coalition cabinet, resigned. That same day, Bucharest district 4 mayor Piedone, whose office released the license for the club where the tragedy occurred, also stepped down. Starting Thursday, parliamentary party representatives started consultations with President Klaus Iohannis to designate a new PM. Thrown off by the vehemence of the street, politicians have failed to make specific nominations, because that position is now a hot potato for any one of them. Interim PM Sorin Campeanu, Minister of Education, is not believed to be able to stay on for long.
The main party in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party, pleads for maintaining the present three party formula, because they claim that they need as soon as possible a functioning executive to issue the state budget for next year and run the country over the winter. Of the parties in the opposition, the Liberals and the Hungarian Union call for dissolving Parliament and early elections, resetting the political game and restore legitimacy to members of Parliament. The idea of early elections is closer to what people call for in the streets.
Slogans are flying such as ‘This is the moment/ Down with Parliament and ‘All parties/ The same filth, and the people are getting more and more restless. Calls for resignation have been also thrown at other political figures, such as the Peoples Advocate, Victor Ciorbea, the head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Daniel, and even President Iohannis. Other protesters claim that the republic itself has been compromised, calling for a change back to monarchy. Far from shouting with the same voice, the street these days displays all the tensions in Romanian society.
