Cav's Place

While some were once again paying more attention to Ukraine as soon as the mess started, on February 18, and by the next day many were focused on the developing situation, the first solidarity events were only actually announced for February 20, starting with a call asking people to gather around the University Square fountain at noon and then march towards the Ukrainian embassy. However, I haven’t seen or heard anything else about it after the fact, so I’ll hazard a guess that too few, if any, showed up and nothing notable actually happened. I will mention that neither this call nor the one for the evening’s event came from the known activists or groups that are part of this movement, the latter being organized by an NGO.
In part, that may have been because a protest, triggered by the fact that the prefect of Vaslui county, who is a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), refused to organize a referendum for removing the mayor of Pungesti from office although the submitted request contained about one and a half times the required number of signatures, was scheduled to take place in front of the party’s headquarters that same evening, starting at 6 PM, but what I saw later makes me say that only some 15 people attended that event, which obviously means that no more than a few of them were there either. Not that I found that in any way surprising in itself, seeing as there was very little reason to stage a protest in that location, especially considering the fact that PNL was in the process of breaking away from the governing coalition, but it rules it out as the reason why many weren’t in front of the embassy either.
Some were, however, and in fact I found people already there at 6:45 PM, when I arrived myself, even though the event was supposed to start at 7 PM, at which time around 65 were present. The numbers didn’t actually increase significantly after that, around 75 being present at the peak, but one of the organizers mentioned a total of about 110 people, which seems reasonable when you consider that some left before others arrived. Even those who had attended the protest that took place in front of the headquarters of PNL eventually showed up, though that caused some tension when Paul Iurea brought up the matter of Pungesti while speaking through the loudspeaker. As far as I’m concerned, that was absolutely inexcusable, seeing as we were there strictly to show solidarity with the Ukrainian protesters and commemorate those who had been killed there since February 18, but thankfully the situation didn’t escalate and, either way, the organizers called the event to an end around 7:45 PM. The candles were left burning, however. And yes, I have a few pictures as well.

The next day’s events started around 2 PM, when those interested in appearing in a short video message for the people of Ukraine had been asked to gather in University Square. The video itself was edited and posted later that same day.
The evening threatened to become something of a mess, however, seeing as at least three different and overlapping events were announced, and that’s without including the viewing of Gasland 2, which was set to start at 6:30 PM, as part of the previously-mentioned exhibition dedicated to the fight against fracking, and which I firmly believe should have been rescheduled. In fact, on top of all of that, somebody mentioned a fourth event related to Ukraine to me as well, but I haven’t personally heard anything about it otherwise, so what worried me most was the one that actually was created by the known activists, which called people to gather around the University Square fountain from 6 PM and start a silent march towards the embassy 45 minutes later, preferably with tape covering their mouths.
Since the organizers of the previous evening’s event had asked people to once again gather in front of the embassy at 7 PM, and somebody else was asking for help to create a peace sign out of candles in the same location, starting at 6 PM, this seemed set to simply split us. Worse, there were also suggestions to pass by the Ministry of External Affairs and briefly protest against a perceived lack of a firm official reaction, the initial statements coming from our authorities being simply that Romania will support the decisions made by the European Union and NATO. As such, the risk of many turning the event into a protest against our Government, ignoring the fact that the real purpose was to display solidarity with the Ukrainian protesters, commemorate the dead and demand an end to the violence, was extremely high.
Eventually, while the activists decided to simply ignore the fact that two thirds of those who voted in the poll they had created on the event page said that we should go directly to the embassy, without a march or anything else, they did discuss the matter with the others and an agreement was reached, the 7 PM event going ahead as planned, for those clearly opposed to the march, and the rest joining them later, at which point those who meant to create the peace sign could do so as well. Thanks to this, despite still having serious doubts about the whole plan, I felt that I could go to the fountain and can therefore say that, after some efforts were made to hold the more restless ones back for a while longer, about 150 of us left exactly on schedule, at 6:45 PM, and reached the embassy around 7:40 PM, thankfully without making any stops or detours to protest along the way, with the exception of a short one in front of the Government that still remained within reasonable limits. The tape wasn’t mentioned again either, and not many chose to cover their mouths in such a manner, yet at the same time very few seemed to actually remember that it was supposed to be a silent march and kept chatting away instead.
Though some offered higher estimates, up to 400 or even 500, after actually trying to count several times I’ll say that the highest number of people that were gathered in front of the embassy at any one time was around 250, yet I think that everything turned out quite well. Many were arranging and lighting candles, there were flowers, some had brought messages, the large banners seen the day before were obviously there once again as well, and I was glad to see that nobody else brought up any unrelated issues. In addition, after they had formed a loose cordon and politely asked us to stay away from the narrow strip of sidewalk immediately in front of the embassy fence the day before, any potential tensions with the gendarmes were avoided after a representative apparently came outside and told them to allow us to stand anywhere this time.
Eventually, as people were starting to get ready to leave, Alex did make use of the loudspeaker once again, finishing a short speech with a call to end the evening with a visit to the Russian embassy, to ask Russia to allow Ukraine to be free. As such, around 8:20 PM a few of us left in that direction, some others catching up a few moments later, and while I never actually tried to count, I’ll say that at least 30 of us, possibly slightly more, reached the Russian embassy. As you can see in the second part of another video, or perhaps even in the last one of my pictures, that didn’t exactly do anyone any good, because the gendarmes met us there and didn’t allow us to stand on that part of the sidewalk.
The request was reasonable under the circumstances and many quickly decided to avoid any incidents and cross the road instead, but at that point Alex’s temperament got in the way again and he started arguing, then asked everyone to stand where we had first ended up, in a spot that can be described as across the road from a corner of the embassy, even though some of us actually intended to go all around the intersection and stop across the road from the actual entrance, and launched himself into a furious rant that quickly moved away from the evening’s topic. Thankfully, while some were gathering around him, enough others kept a cool head and eventually managed to make him stop and walk away. As far as I’m aware, that was when the evening’s events ended, though we walked back to Victoriei Square together and, once there, as some of us headed for the metro station, others broke away and seemed to be heading in the direction of the Government.

With the next day being Saturday, I was actually expecting a bigger event, similar to those that took place in many other parts of the world. However, if anything did happen that day, it definitely wasn’t big and I haven’t seen or heard anything about it. As such, this period ended with a whimper on February 23, when a small number of people once again gathered around the fountain, starting at 4 PM. I do have a few pictures, and gendarmes and some reporters were present, but they had little to do seeing as only 40, maybe 45 of us were there at the peak and not even the candles could be lit due to the wind. After 5 PM some were starting to leave, and I did so as well around 5:15 PM, along with others. Should perhaps also mention that another group had announced an intention to turn the event into a protest after 5 PM, but nothing of the sort happened while I was there and I haven’t heard anything about it later either.