Cav's Place

The date for this year’s National Anti-Fracking Day had been set to April 6 quite some time ago, activists from several dozen cities, communes and villages, including some from abroad, organizing protests on that day, all starting at 3 PM. As such, after the on-line campaign had begun even earlier, the efforts aimed to create awareness about the event on the streets of Bucharest started in earnest on March 30, apparently at 1 PM. As proof of how serious the activists were this time around, on top of printing huge numbers of fliers and posters, they had also managed to secure a location to serve as campaign headquarters, where volunteers could go to receive the materials to be spread around the city or to help create the signs and banners that were to be displayed or offered to people during the protest itself. In addition, some messages first asked those willing to lend a hand to gather on April 4, at 5:30 PM, in a little park, before others called all volunteers to come to the University Square underground passage on April 5, at 11 AM and 5 PM, as well as the next day, again from 11 AM.
Despite all this, and no doubt at least in part due to the weather and to the fact that, as some had correctly pointed out, a significant number of people would have preferred the event to start two or three hours later, the protest itself was rather subdued, largely consisting of a series of speeches in front of a crowd of no more than a few hundred. In fact, the mainstream media limited itself to either reporting that we were “over 100” or quoting the Gendarmerie, which was estimating between 100 and 150. However, around the time the first speech started, some five minutes before 4 PM, I actually tried to count the protesters and ended up a little shy of 250, while not long after that George Epurescu announced from the stage, after listing the few cities in which thousands were attending, that “over 250” people were present. Later, I had the impression that more had arrived and was tempted to estimate our numbers at up to 400 at the peak, but now, after looking over the pictures I took as well, I strongly doubt that.
The organizers even followed the procedure required by our restrictive laws, so this protest was entirely legal. Admittedly, it was hard to believe that they’d have managed to use the stage, have a generator and a sound system, and set up a tent without these approvals, and the fact that the protest was meant to be calm and static probably meant that they didn’t have many difficulties in obtaining them. I don’t actually have any information about that, but I consider just this lack of information as evidence in favor of my assumption, seeing as activists usually post when they attempt to obtain such an approval and are given a hard time.
In fact, the protocol signed with the authorities this time around was unnecessarily permissive, stating that we were allowed to occupy the area until 9 PM when the protest ended shortly after 6 PM, and even that meant that it lasted longer than many wanted it to. That was because, despite being mostly on topic, the speech made by a known and, in my opinion, respected activist was particularly long and some people started scattering as a result, the process continuing in earnest when it was announced that anyone who has something to say is welcome to use the stage and two of those who generally take advantage of this movement to rather aggressively promote their own views and causes rushed to seize the opportunity. The rant the second one had launched himself into was eventually stopped by an activist, after he had ignored the protesters who had started chanting against fracking in an attempt to remind him why we were there.
After that rather unpleasant moment, a couple more brief speeches marked the end of the event and, while the sound system remained in use, for music dedicated to the cause, and the tent was still manned, the activists began gathering the materials and equipment. A few had a different idea, wanting to start a march, on the sidewalk, to the Government building, but no more than a handful seemed interested and some of the better known figures argued against it, correctly pointing out that having so few people try to march, breaking the protocol the organizers had signed with the authorities in the process, would put the event in a bad light. While I left a few minutes later and therefore don’t know for sure, I assume there was no march.

Otherwise, the events set to take place as part of the exhibition I mentioned before, which opened on March 27 and aims to be a retrospective of the protests that started last September, continued with a concert on March 30, a debate about mainstream and independent journalism from the point of view of portraying the protests on April 3, and a mix of both, a debate on the topic of art as protest followed by another concert, on April 5. According to the listed schedule, this latter debate should have taken place on April 2 and I don’t know whether it was rescheduled or this means that there were two of them, and I also saw no mentions of the concert and the painting workshop scheduled for April 6. I did see, however, a message stating that some other concerts and workshops, which were supposed to take place outside, had to be rescheduled due to the weather.
Last but definitely not least, according to a picture I saw, a flash mob in support of women’s right to have an abortion, reminding people that over 10000 died as a result of the procedure being banned by the Communist regime, took place in front of the University Square fountain on March 31. That image was shared by a few others after the fact, but I saw nothing whatsoever about the event otherwise, so the only other piece of information I have comes from the description of the picture, which states that it was taken at 5:13 PM.