Social Democratic Rally in Bucharest

Saturday was a hot day in Bucharest, as the capital played host to an impressive number of public rallies and marches

Bogdan Matei, 11.06.2018, 12:49

Street music and theatre performances, a football match, marches in support of and against the LGTB community, meetings promoting the reunification of Romania with the neighbouring Republic of Moldova; these are just a few of the many events that the Romanian capital hosted on Saturday, a day which fortunately passed without serious incidents being reported.

The largest event of the day was the rally staged by the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, which brought to Bucharest more than 100,000 people. Members and supporters were called from all across the country to protest against what the Social Democratic Leader Liviu Dragnea described as abuse and violation of the rule of law principles.

Speaking on behalf of his party colleagues and Liberal-Democratic junior partners, he has accused the existence of an illegitimate, underground structure, which he has generically dubbed “the parallel state, which is allegedly influencing the decisions of the judiciary. This nebulous structure would include prosecutors, including the head of the National Anticorruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi, special services generals, civic activists, hostile journalists and right wing opposition politicians.

Allegedly established by the former head of state Traian Basescu and currently headed by the current president Klaus Iohannis, the parallel state would be the one preventing the left from providing Romanians with the well-being they promised in 2016, when, after a short technocratic governing, the Social Democratic Party once again took the reigns of power. “We want prosperity, not security was one of the slogans chanted during the rally, hinting at the hideous political police of the communist dictatorship, the Securitate, which, they say, is now back to life, in a democracy which was nonetheless validated by Romanias joining the European Union and NATO.

According to a large part of the media, constantly challenged by a civil society that accuses the power of wanting to stop the fight against corruption and manipulating the magistracy, the Social Democratic Party needed the rally to gain legitimacy as the main political force in the country.

However marginal, there are voices in the party, though, who say that organizing a protest rally when you actually control the Government, Parliament, prefectures and three quarters of the countrys municipalities is rather absurd.

To the Liberal opposition, the rally was a profoundly undemocratic action, aimed to intimidate the magistrates, the public servants and the state sector employees who refuse to obey political orders, and also the journalists who dare challenge and criticize the Social Democratic Party.

International news agencies have reported on the event, describing it as the majority gathering troops against magistrates and also noting that on Friday, right on the eve of the rally, the High Court of Cassation and Justice postponed, for the third time, the verdict in the process in which prosecutors of the National Anti-corruption Directorate called on the judges to sentence Dragnea to 7 years and 5 months in prison for abuse of office and 2 years and 6 months for forgery. In 2016 he already got a suspended two-year prison sentence for attempted electoral fraud. (Edited by D. Vijeu)