Dozens of citizens protested against the new restrictions due to the increase in covid-19 cases, in Bucharest this Monday.DANIEL MIHAILESCU / AFP
The Romanian far right joins the groups that are appropriating the concept of freedom to lash out at restrictive policies due to the coronavirus.
Convened by the anti-system party Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR, which means gold in Romanian), thousands of citizens protested on Monday night, for the second day in a row, in 70 cities of the eastern European country against the new measures imposed. by the Government to stop the abrupt escalation of Covid-19 cases reported in recent days.
The protesters broke the curfew from 8:00 pm - which came into effect last weekend - and caused violent incidents in Bucharest, the capital of the country, which culminated in 12 gendarmes wounded and almost 200 people booked.
The Prosecutor's Office has communicated that it is investigating acts of outrage, disturbances of public order, burning of containers and the destruction of shop windows and urban furniture.
Possession of dangerous objects, such as knives, is also analyzed.
Meanwhile, the questioning of the suspects continues and fines of 40,000 euros have been imposed.
The protests also spread to other cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Constanza, Sibiu, Brasov, Timisoara and Iasi.
In addition, a group of about 300 people sat in the middle of the road, near the University Square, and cut off traffic from the main artery of the Romanian capital.
The general director of the Bucharest Gendarmerie, Colonel Ionel-Catalin Stegaroiu, explained this Tuesday at a press conference that "with the intervention of the police, all of them became violent and began to throw stones."
Stegaroiu congratulated his teammates for the "calm" and "professionalism" they showed during the clashes.
Protest this Monday in Bucharest against the restrictions imposed by the pandemic DANIEL MIHAILESCU / AFP
Another of the measures protested by the protesters is the closing hours of commercial stores, which have recently been advanced from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
“We are fed up and every time we are going to be more of us who take to the streets.
There are many young people who need to work because their parents cannot support them, they barely have the means to survive because of the restrictions against covid-19 ”, a young woman told local media during the protest.
Romania, a country with 19 million inhabitants, is also being affected by the new wave of coronavirus that is affecting Europe.
The Romanian authorities have notified 6,204 new cases of covid-19 on Tuesday and 175 deaths in the last day, which brings the number to almost one million infections and more than 23,000 deaths.
"Health dictatorship"
The protesters, including the leader of the AUR party, George Simion, shouted "Freedom, we love you", and called for the resignation of the center-right government and the president, the conservative Klaus Iohannis, amidst Romanian flags and the din monotone of the
vuvuzelas.
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“Romania is boiling and wants to regain its freedom.
The Government is deaf and dumb.
The corrupt press is complicit, ”the far-right party posted on its Facebook account to encourage citizens to participate in the protest.
“We live in a state where the government kidnaps its own citizens and terrorizes them every day with threats, panic statistics and fines.
We are all under house arrest for an act that no one has committed, "the political formation attacked in another publication on the same social network.
Among their demands were the lifting of restrictions on road traffic, the obligation to use the mask in public spaces, and the reopening of the hospitality sector.
They also denounced what they call "health dictatorship."
The political scientist Cristian Parvulescu told Digi24 that “the fact that they use the motto of freedom is a way of expressing the misunderstanding of the world in which they live.
You cannot stop the spread of the virus with protests;
on the contrary, you are accelerating the infections and it is very likely that some people will get sick from this, and this affects the businesses they are talking about ”.
Political analyst Dan Tapalaga explains to EL PAÍS that "the extremists and conspirators were mobilized by the leaders of AUR, the party of the unconscious and irresponsible."
Tapalaga adds that the training "methodically undermines any confidence in the restrictions, masks, efforts in the fight against the pandemic", and considers that those responsible for the violent protests are fans - like George Simion - of the Romanian soccer team.
“The ultras, as usual, with a small financial incentive are always ready for a fight with the gendarmes, especially since they are not having fun [due to the closure of the stadiums];
others returned from Western Europe, where it is not clear what they were working on, and around here they do not know what to do either ”.
