Romanian citizens riot on street to protest against government austerity measures

Thousands of Romanian citizens from Bucharest and 40 other cities gathered in the streets in January in what has become the longest series of protests in the last decade

February 2012 - From the Print Edition

The focus of the gathering is government austerity measures, and demonstrators are calling for the removal of President Traian Basescu, as well as early elections. The unrest follows cuts to salaries, benefits and higher taxes, but the catalyst was the resignation of popular health official Raed Arafat. In Bucharest, thousands of protesters gathered at Piata Universitatii.
Violence flared on January 14 and 15, when the police and gendarmerie used tear gas on demonstrators. As of Sunday night (22 January), more than 2,000 police officers were on the streets of the capital, according to official data. The citizens congregating in Bucharest and elsewhere expressed their anger over the austerity measures and the Romanian Government overall, focusing on Basescu.
The demonstrations follow several unpopular measures taken by the Government over the past two years. After receiving a loan of EUR 20 billion from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union in 2009, the State cut public sector salaries by 25 percent a year later as part of austerity measures recommended by the IMF. The January protests were described as the most vociferous since Basescu’s election in 2004. The early days of the unrest were followed by mass demonstrations organized by the opposition coalition “to formalize protest plans,” according to Crin Antonescu, liberal opposition leader, adding that the group disagrees with the way in which the Government has handled the citizen demonstrations.