Romania (possible) 2nd Revolution

Romania (possible) 2nd Revolution

www.antena3.ro

The link is to main news TV station in Romania

(visit the link for the full news article)

5 days ago, the romanian president forced a subsecretary of state to resign, amid imposing a new health law.
The subsecretary, Raed Arafat, is a person with 87% TRUST among romanians, while the president WAS at 9%.
After resignation, the president droped to 5% trust.
After street protests in some cities in the country, Bucharest, the capital, has awakened.
Yesterday, the protesters went to presidential palace, UNSTOPED by the Gendarmerie.
Today, the protests restarted, with much much more ppl, in the University Square, at 14:00 hours.

Atm, a column of protesters are heading to presidential palace, after breaking the cordons.The Gendarmerie looks freindly.

An oposition senator told on Tv that the president have left the capital 3 hours ago.

Now, the protesters asking the president and government to resing.

www.antena3.ro
(visit the link for the full news article)

University Square is atm blocked by protesters, others then the ones heading to presidential palace.


Will keep updates coming.

link to a news article about it

www.boston.com...

I havn't really got a feel for this story yet, I'm not sure if its just your standard protests and inept government or revolution in the making

I will update this post with the latest info from the Romanian Revolution from January 2012.

The Romanian gendarmes are beating protestors with their sticks, using lachrymatory and even explozives to keep people in peace.

It is not possible. It's like civil war.

The protestors are peaceful, but the police is beating and atacking them.

Interesting, I had no idea and I live in Serbia, next door.

Also had no idea that you had a very popular Romanian politician with an Arab name, will have to look it up!

I know the times have changed in Romania, but I think asking him to resign is a pretty civil gesture, considering what happened to Ceaușescu some years ago. I would hate to see an all out revolution in any country, but when you have those in power who think they can do anything unchecked, sometimes it becomes necessary.

5:25am and still protesting. Sources should be coming soon ..

i hope !'

watching the live feed : there's blood on the street, protesters are peacceful, i think i understood communication is blocked ?, protest at different places


It's the people vs austerity measures / IMF


www.aljazeera.com... (don't flame for the source )

I am watching the live streaming : I do not see the word "Bank" however this looks more and more like the Romanian version of the "Occupy Wall-street" , including the struggle of the opposition to hijack the movement. . The messages of the protesters are not limited to the future Health reform only : I see messages criticising the new Sale Tax for second had cars or even messages against starting a very controversial gold mining project where the people would have to deal with environment impact for generations. Go Romania!

As a new element, football fans appears to be organised and have bad intentions for the police.They are well experienced in fighting with the police, so this looks like trouble..

15 January 2012 Update

It is like civil war.

20+ cities from Romania already started revolution on 15 January 2012 and people are burning in Bucharest. It is crazy and the president of Romania doesn't even speak with the population for the last 3-4 days.

It is crazy, what is going on?

I've been following this mostly because I'm not hearing anything about this on the cable TV channels

here's some MSM links to the protests.

BUCHAREST, Romania — Protests continued in Romanian cities Sunday reflecting widespread anger against austerity measures and an unpopular government.

The protests, in their fourth day, are the most serious since President Traian Basescu came to power in 2004. They are the result of frustration against public wage cuts, slashed benefits, higher taxes, cronyism in state institutions and widespread corruption.

www.ctv.ca...

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of Romanians staged a third straight day of protests on Saturday in the capital Bucharest and other cities, as anger over a healthcare reform bill widened into protest against government austerity measures.

The government pulled its draft healthcare reform bill on Friday after street protests and criticism, but that has failed to assuage the anger of crowds, who called on Saturday for early elections and the resignation of President Traian Basescu.

www.reuters.com...

I appreciate, as I'm sure all of ATS does, that this information is being made available here


www.cnn.com...

Some background:

In 2009, Romania took a two-year euro20 billion ($27.5 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund, the EU and the World Bank, as its economy shrank by 7.1 percent. Romania imposed harsh austerity measures under the agreement, reducing public wages by 25 percent and increasing taxes.

The unlikely catalyst for the protests, however, was the resignation of popular health official Raed Arafat, a Palestinian with Romanian citizenship who opposed health reforms proposed by the government. On Friday, Basescu told the government to scrap the reforms, but public anger had already risen against Basescu and the government.

www.boston.com...

Thanks!

I don't understand why the president is not speaking with the people? Why doesn't he face the people? Why does he let the people beaten by the police?

He can stop the revolution just by showing up, but he probably loves to see this revolution going crazier day by day.

They just called an emergency meeting:

Romania’s government calls crisis meeting to discuss violent protests against austerity

Things are going to get real hectic this spring time.

Hi guys, I'm from Romania and what i can say about our president is that he is not interested in Romanian people, he increased taxes, wages fell by 25% , car tax increase, and so many Romanians left to work through other countries because they can not live in romania and now all the people started a new revolution, if you want to see more videos , pictures about the Romanian revolution news visit the main site stirileprotv.ro...

Sorry for bad english ...

reply to post by Recollector


Try stirileprotv.ro... this is the main news site

Ordinary people were beaten almost to death by the police ("by mistake"). They hit them in the head, they beat them like monsters. This is not a fair system. This is a fear system. They are afraid of the people and do whatever they can to maintain their leadership position (the politicians).

Love it how the opposition is trying to take controll of these riots and steer them how they want. We should take down all of these former communists and former KGB informants and try to get a new system in place, dominated by youth not by old farts that are interested only in making money or getting power (former president Ion Iliescu?).

Anyway these protests are getting bigger. The one from 3 days ago had only about 50-60 members and now it grew to almost 1700.

reply to post by AlexIR


Abuse

7th day of protests today. The Opposition tried to hijack the protest however they were quite unsuccessful as opposition (Social-Liberal Union, a neocom bunch of guys) was highly unpopular among protesters. The new banners waved by the protesters are now against actual power and main opposition as well. From the police side, violence is still going on , mainly violence provoked by the police. People are beaten , arrested and fined regardless, and most of the arrested ones will end up being recorded as potential criminals in the polices database.

reply to post by Romanian


sounds like people are standing up for them selves and not falling for the left/right dividing trick good on them!

Go Romanians!