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According to the Associated Press, Romanian police used tear gas to disperse an anti-government demonstration; they estimated that the crowd was over a thousand people. For the third consecutive day, mass demonstrations erupted over the Romanian government’s plans to reduce government spending drastically. The night before, protesters gathered on University Square in downtown Bucharest. They blocked traffic on the main streets of the city and refused to disperse for seven hours, despite police orders to do so. Protesters chanted slogans demanding the resignation of Romanian President Traian Băsescu and the calling of early elections. The police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, after the cops tussled with protesters. AFP reported that the clashes injured at least 10 people; four policemen, an employee of Romanian TV channel Antena 3, and 5 protestors. Earlier, the Romanian government put in place a programme to cut state spending. In 2010, they reduced civil servants’ salaries by 25 percent and raised some tax rates, according to RIA-Novosti.
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Today, anti-government demonstrations occurred in Bucharest and other major Romanian cities. The protestors demanded the resignation of Romanian President Traian Băsescu, that the cabinet step down, and that the government abandon its “austerity” policies. According to the Romanian media outlet Realitatea TV, demonstrators took to the streets in Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Galați, and Craiova, in addition to those in the capital. For anti-government slogans, demonstrators added at this time and banners calling for “renounce violence”. On Saturday night in University Square in downtown Bucharest, clashes broke out between police and demonstrators, who didn’t comply with orders to disperse and marched to Cotroceni Palace, the presidential residence. The cops used tear gas to break up the crowd; more than a dozen people suffered injuries in the mêlée, including four policemen and an employee of Romanian TV channel Antena 3.
Over the past year, the Romanian authorities implemented an “action plan” to rescue the economy, which, according to Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc, “faced its most difficult crisis in the past 60 years”. Romania’s one of the poorest EU countries, and, in order to stay afloat, it received assistance from the IMF and the EU. As a condition for aid, the government cut public-sector salaries by 25 percent, reduced pensions by 15 percent, terminated a number of social programmes, and made hundreds of thousands of civil servants redundant. These policies on the part of the authorities provoked sharp criticism from labour unions, which called the government actions “social genocide” and organised mass protests. ITAR-TASS reported that the unified opposition in parliament, the Social Liberal Union (USL), started the process to impeach President Băsescu.
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The Romanian government held an emergency meeting in connection with the country’s growing wave of protests against its austerity measures. The evening before, in Bucharest, demonstrators pelted police with stones, who responded with water cannons and tear gas. Several dozen people were injured. Protests erupted across the country for the fourth consecutive day. All told, more than 4,000 people participated in the rallies. The protestors demanded the resignation of Romanian President Traian Băsescu, that the cabinet step down, and that the government abadon its “austerity” policies. The government claims that these measures would reduce the very high public debt, which put Romania on the brink of an economic crisis. Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc urged protesters to end their violence and start to dialogue.
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In Bucharest and other Romanian cities, demonstrators demanded the resignation of Romanian President Traian Băsescu. Special police units equipped with shields, batons, and tear gas cylinders now ring the area surrounding University Square in Bucharest, where thousands of protesters gathered the night before. Cops searched people for weapons and explosives. A group of demonstrators carried a coffin with the inscription “Băsescu = Ceaușescu”, pointing out the similarities between the current president and the country’s last communist leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu, executed in December 1989. Ceaușescu faced charges of crimes against state property, the genocide of his people, the secret transfer of funds in foreign banks, and undermining the national economy.
According to police authorities, football yobbos, backers of FC Dinamo Bucureşti and FC Steaua Bucureşti {they have a Romanian analogue of a Rangers vs Celtic thing going on, called the Eternal Derby. They’re the Romanian Old Firm: editor}, known for their rowdiness at matches, exacerbated the situation. Cops arrested nine people, who threw firecrackers at the police in an attempt to enflame the situation, and three of them had knives and other dangerous objects. Students gathered in the centre of Bucharest, new demonstrators took to the streets in Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Timișoara, Constanța, and other cities.
In connection with the wave of demonstrations, the Romanian Government held an emergency meeting, following which Prime Emil Boc called demonstrators “to end their violence and start to dialogue”. On Monday, police arrested over 200 protesters, most of whom faced fines for participating in last night’s riots, during which they threw stones, petrol bombs, and firecrackers at the coppers. In response, the police used truncheons and tear gas. According to reports, the violence led to 60 people injured, including five policemen.
The immediate cause for the anti-government demonstrations was a proposal by President Băsescu to “reform” healthcare {on the same lines as the acrid and noxious US “welfare reform” of 1996: editor}. After Deputy Minister of Health Raed Arafat {a Palestinian immigrant to Romania: editor} resigned in protest, Băsescu withdrew the bill, but that didn’t mollify the demonstrators, who expressed dissatisfaction with the fall in general living standards, and, in particular, the reduction in salaries and the pensions freeze. The Western media reported that the current protests were the biggest in Romania since President Băsescu took office in 2004.
15-17 January 2012
Voice of Russia World Service
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012/01/15/63869080.html
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012/01/15/63899544.html
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012/01/16/63908169.html
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012/01/17/63983066.html
Editor’s Note:
Let’s keep this focused and “on point”. The pro-American lickspittles in the government want to put all the pain in the current situation on the common people. The government wants to spare the Romanian analogues of McMansion dwellers from all sacrifice and inconvenience. They’re “productive”, dontcha know! This is exactly what the GOP wants to impose in this country, too… it wants to squeeze ordinary folks for the profit of those like Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney. After all, Mitt enjoys firing people… he said so. Oh, yes… the “man of the people” Rick Santorum’s worth over a million bucks… how many of you have comparable worth?
The people have “had it”… they’re taking to the streets. In the short run, it’s not going to get better; the imprisonment of Abba Ephrem in Greece proved that. Yet, it’s “October 1916”… and a spectre’s haunting the Neoliberals’ paradise…
Most ordinary Romanians appreciated the achievements of the former Socialist Republic of Romania in the social sphere, and they despise the “new” Neoliberal Globalised/Multinational Romania (the Western media has its agenda, and it issues much white propaganda from Langley). A direct and actual quote has it, “We had everything! We had a good life! Indeed, we could go to church. We had it all! Now? Division and misery!”
‘Nuff said…
BMD
