Cav's Place

I should probably start this post with the fact that some activists kept defacing the banners, posters and campaign tents of the major parties, crossing out parts of the slogans and spraying others that were closer to the truth, adding some slogans chanted so far during the protests, occasionally spraying Hitler-style mustaches on the faces of the leading politicians and asking people not to vote. Of course, this last part I have a huge problem with, so I’ll leave it aside for now and stick to the action in general, which I believe gained more momentum during this period but was in fact hinted at by a few activists even during April. For obvious reasons, all of this took place at night, there were never any actual calls to help and I assume that activists usually worked independently of each other, but it was interesting to see when, after cleaning up a couple of times, the Social Democrats (PSD) simply gave up replacing what was defaced, at first only covering what was sprayed on the tents with posters or even blank sheets but eventually not even doing that anymore at times.

Moving on, the most notable protest that took place during this period, in terms of both attendance and media coverage, was the cyclists’ march on May 10. The authorities actually tried to stop it, saying that other events were taking place along the planned route at the same time and those who organized those had sent notifications first despite the fact that the organization that defends the rights of cyclists decided its protest schedule for years in advance, until the end of 2016 if I remember correctly, and filed notifications for all of them several months ago. As such, they were determined to take the matter to court if the Police and Gendarmerie won’t be more understanding and eventually, I believe after some quick changes to the route, it went ahead as scheduled, people gathering at 2:30 PM and leaving an hour later, and stopping after reaching Basarab bridge to lie down for a few minutes before continuing. The official count, which was possible since each participant was asked to take a number, was 1396, but the estimates of around 1500 may have in fact been closer to the truth, since some may not have taken numbers after all.

Another significant protest was the May 17 one against killing stray dogs. In itself, the 100 to 150 people who attended meant that the one that took place here, in Victory Square, was disappointing even when compared to the previous one, but it was part of a series of protests that took place on that day in several dozen cities across the world, activists and animal lovers far and wide being outraged by what’s going on. Since once again, still because the vast majority of those who are part of this movement promote mandatory spaying and neutering as the solution and I oppose that just as much as I oppose killing, I neither attended nor followed what was posted particularly carefully, I can’t say much more than that, however.
What I did try to attend was what was announced as a small protest in front of the Bucharest Appeals Court, starting at noon on May 12. The reason why I wasn’t able to do that either was that there was no protest after all, as the idea was that as many people as will be able to fit inside the courtroom should show their support for this effort to annul the rules for implementing the “Euthanasia Law” and therefore make it impossible to apply by simply being in the audience, and only the rest will remain outside. However, likely less than 30 actually showed up, everybody could fit inside, nobody waited outside to guide those who weren’t already part of the group and, while a few others did so, I wasn’t up for simply going in and looking for the courtroom in question on my own.

Going back to the beginning of this period, two protests took place on May 9, but only the one at the Ministry of External Affairs, supposed to start at 6 PM, was announced. The main topic was the situation in Ukraine and the list of demands began with asking our authorities to get more involved in solving the crisis in general and protecting the Romanian citizens living in the affected areas in particular, but then continued with something about additional rights for said Romanian citizens and finished with a completely unrelated request about our ambassador in Moldova. As such, only supporting the first two demands and actually opposing the last, I was torn about attending and eventually showed up just to see what will happen, spending some time talking with the first person I found there and then taking a few pictures, which I didn’t even post myself, of the precisely three people, not counting myself, who eventually gathered, two of them being allowed inside to submit the petition.
On the other hand, the other protest was far more notable but, for obvious reasons, it was not announced. As such, without anyone else knowing what they were planning and therefore being unable to support them, a few anti-fracking activists showed up in the area where a workshop and an exhibition were set up with the occasion of Europe Day, people being asked to express their ideas and expectations from the European Parliament. Unsurprisingly, the organizers were not happy to see a couple of banners, requests for paintings to portray the concept of a frack-free Europe and an adapted version of the lyrics of “Imagine” written with chalk on the pavement, so they called the Gendarmerie and Local Police, but after being told that the activists will not be removed because they were doing exactly what the event description asked people to do, they rushed to wash away the writing and asked reporters not to mention this. Still, the activists were not deterred and continued paying brief visits to the locations where other related events were scheduled to take place, spreading fliers before apparently ending the day in front of the University Square fountain.

Otherwise, one thing anti-fracking activists did announce was taking part in the nongovernmental organizations’ “festival”, the main part of which taking place on May 10 and 11 in Herastrau Park, the first day’s schedule also including a debate on this topic, between 5 PM and 7 PM. Another group announced two debates about new methods of organizing activists, which included participants from other European countries, on May 9 and 10, and a third, titled “Democracy and the Future of Europe”, on May 11, apparently only this last one also being part of the “festival” mentioned above. In addition, documents proving the involvement of corrupt politicians and even organized crime in funding mainstream media in Romania and the surrounding region were supposed to be presented during an event that apparently took place on May 12, starting at 7 PM, but I found absolutely no other information about this. Last but definitely not least, another screening of Where Are You Bucharest? took place on May 11, starting at 8:30 PM, as part of the European Film Festival, while some of the footage Vlad Petri captured during last autumn’s protests could be viewed on May 17, starting at 6 PM, as part of another festival.