Cav's Place

A few more events took place since the previous protest report I posted, including a campaign during the last week of 2017, during which a group of people sent e-mails to members of the Parliament, mainly those who voted in favor of the changes to the laws concerning the justice system, or a band’s attempt, stopped by gendarmes, to film a video for a protest song in Victory Square on December 29, or a very small event in front of the Iranian embassy on January 3, meant to show solidarity with the Iranian protesters and not announced until after the fact. In addition, a silent protest took place in Victory Square today, being part of the international “Stolen Justice” protest, which from what I gather was initiated in Poland, a few other countries also participating.
That’s all I’ll say about those other events, however, and there have been at least one or two others which I didn’t save anything about and therefore won’t mention at all. This post won’t exactly be detailed either way, but what details it does contain have to do with the main event announced since last month, which was this march on January 20, when people from all over the country were asked to come to Bucharest, though protests took place in other cities as well.

Should start with something that took place before the protest itself though, and that’s the “March of Hope”, started on January 10 by a few people from Cluj, who walked all the way to Bucharest, being joined by a handful of others on the way. The last leg of the march took place just on January 20, starting from Otopeni and eventually reaching University Square, finally once again the starting point of the main protest, in the afternoon, after passing through Victory Square on the way as well. Don’t know many other details and see little point in adding the few things I happened to spot, so I’ll just finish this bit by saying that their effort and dedication can’t be stressed enough.

Moving on to the January 20 protest itself, the starting time was set at 6 PM and, as I already mentioned, the location was once again, finally, University Square. There were voices that kept demanding going to Victory Square, in front of the Government building, again, though Romania doesn’t even have a Government at this moment, and apparently known plans to divert the march to the Cotroceni (Presidential) Palace, which I’d have considered a fair target, seeing as the President rushed to accept the ruling coalition’s new nomination for Prime Minister, without even attempting to fight it, causing many who still believed there may still be allies in high places, at least when it comes to this issue, to feel terribly betrayed and angry, justifiably so. However, the plan was to start marching at 7:30 PM and head straight for the Parliament, passing by the nearby National Audiovisual Council (CNA) on the way and also going to the left after reaching Constitution Square to “target” the Constitutional Court (CCR) as well. The post also mentioned passing by the Romanian Ombudsman, but that’s definitely not on the planned route, so not sure what that was about.
Either way, people started arriving quite early, some having joined the March of Hope through Bucharest and therefore being there even a couple of hours before the announced start time and more and more gathering after that, thousands filling the area before 6 PM. I for one only arrived after 6:30 PM, maybe actually around 6:45 PM, so I didn’t personally see what happened before then, but reports state that the gendarmes had installed fences and tried to keep people on the sidewalks, not allowing them to take to the street, which made the situation get increasingly tense as people tried to push their way through. In addition, as of some point, people weren’t allowed to exit the University Square metro station either, plus that some were being searched and had their identification checked, the Gendarmerie stating that they found a toy pistol and a few knives, chains and knuckles.
Having heard the news about the University Square station being blocked as I switched trains at the Victory Square station, I got off at Romana Square, along with plenty of others who were on that train and heard that piece of information, walking the rest of the way. As such, as I already mentioned, I got there quite late and by the time I did there was no sign of the earlier problems, things apparently having calmed down very quickly after the protesters broke through and occupied the street, which I gather happened a few minutes before 6:30 PM, around which time the gendarmes stopped blocking those trying to come out of the metro station as well, no longer getting in the way after that point. As for any troublesome elements among the protesters, there was a firecracker after a while, which prompted shouts of “not like this”, but nothing else that I’m aware of.
The crowd was too large to be able to get a good idea of it and, also considering the constant snowfall and the slush and puddles that were forming, since the temperature was above freezing, I didn’t even mean to start taking pictures at first, but once I did start I ended up taking quite a number, even if they only reflected a small part of what was there. Once I ended up inside the crowd, I stopped having any sense of where it began and where it ended, which is entirely unsurprising seeing as reports state that the column took up to one hour to pass by an observer and that the entire route was filled with people, the relatively short march meaning that the head of the column arrived in Constitution Square long before the last people even left University Square, and quite a number apparently joined at Unirii Square as well. Not that I’m too certain when people got moving, for that matter, just noticing that those in the area I was in started doing so at some point. Reports seem to state that the march began around 7:20 PM though, so a little ahead of schedule.
Past this point, there’s not that much to say. As I already mentioned, the gendarmes didn’t get in the way and there were no problems that I’m aware of, so people just marched along the planned route. Didn’t notice anything having to do with those rumored planned attempts to divert the march to the Cotroceni Palace, nor anything in particular happening when passing by the CNA, nor any clear indications that people were supposed to make a point of stopping at CCR as well at the end. But with a crowd that size, anything might have happened in a different spot, and more likely at the head of the column, which I was apparently far from, since I for one reached Constitution Square around 8:20 PM and I see reports that the first ones were there just before 8 PM. I find that a little surprising, not thinking I was that far behind, but it’s definitely not impossible, and just goes to show how little sense I had of that crowd, due to it being so large.
Once in Constitution Square, people spread all around, trying to avoid the worst puddles but for some reason many also choosing to stay back, the crowd gathered past the Square itself, on the street in front of the Parliament, in front of the line of gendarmes, being pretty scattered. And slowly, as more kept arriving, some started leaving, though probably not that many before the last scheduled moment, at 9 PM, when once again people were asked to turn on lights and sing the anthem. The part with the anthem didn’t turn out too well though, seeming to just die out after the far too large crowd failed to synchronize and more and more gave up, plus that some were shouting other things all along.
After braving the weather until then, the crowd started clearing away quite quickly after that moment, and I was among those leaving within minutes, reports stating that the protest had pretty much ended around 10 PM. The estimates are of 50000 participants or more, some saying 60000 or 70000, though I saw 40000 as well. Considering the weather, that truly was a pleasant surprise. Unless I’m missing something, those numbers would actually make this the biggest march so far, and it sure seems that neither those who tried to organize it to some extent nor the media sources supporting the protests expected anything like this. But, of course, the question is what comes next, how to actually win not just this battle, against certain proposed changes to the justice system and some of those that are part of the ruling coalition’s “fiscal revolution”, but how to turn the tide on a larger scale. And I’m not just referring to Romania anymore. Not in the least…