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Romania is developing its own culture of protests

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Re: Romania is developing its own culture of protests

#11

It is always a bit awkward to stop a protest once you achieved your primary goal. You are now a lot of people in the streets, with a lot of power, the government backs off. Should you ask for more or stick to the original requests that are now satisfied?

While the original reason that kickstarted the protest was a shady law passed through an emergency ordinance (not sure if that's an English term), the problem itself is much bigger. People are dissatisfied that the new government is trying to reduce the effectiveness of certain anti corruption institutions, which have aggressively processed corruption cases for the past couple of years. This has caused a lot of desperation among public sector workers, from low level counsel positions up to the highest parts of the government. I see this as a potential inflection point for Romania and I am curious which way it goes.

Re: Romania is developing its own culture of protests

#12
post #9
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our president Claus Iohannis has started a war with the winning party PSD. He encouraged people to protest against PSD and now supporters of PSD are protesting against Iohannis. I'm ashamed by my country but hey it could be worse.

I wouldn't put it like that. He encouraged anti-corruption protests, it's just that PSD decided to support corruption. Nobody is protesting the election results. The people continue to protest the current government because they showed themselves to be untrustworthy. They backed down right now under pressure but who says they won't give another executive order in the middle of the night when no one is looking ?

"He encouraged anti-corruption protests." This executive order was talked about with ECHR and Italy had a similar project this has nothing to do with corruption. source:

http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Speech_20170127_Raimondi_J...

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-drugs-law-idUSBREA1B...

"they won't give another executive order in the middle of the night when no one is looking ?"

It has become self evident to me that we need a Donald Trump so maybe our fellow Romanians get back into reality.

EDIT: P.S. The echr source talks about the problem but discussion have taken place. Also i it find a bit alarming that the case creation rate has increased so unpredictably. I quote "Firstly, with regard to Hungary and Romania, for which the number of cases increased by 95% and 108% respectively in 2016". What does this suggest? I remaind you that 2016 was a year in which Iohannis's technocratic government ruled

Re: Romania is developing its own culture of protests

#13
post #3

It is always a bit awkward to stop a protest once you achieved your primary goal. You are now a lot of people in the streets, with a lot of power, the government backs off. Should you ask for more or stick to the original requests that are now satisfied?

Our president Claus Iohannis has started a war with the winning party PSD. He encouraged people to protest against PSD and now supporters of PSD are protesting against Iohannis. I'm ashamed by my country but hey it could be worse.

Yeah, right... The government passes an emergency ordinance quietly during the night, aimed at saving the party's leader, and you blame the president. IOW, people shouldn't think for themselves because there are leaders elected to do just that. What I'm really ashamed of is that there are still many Romanian citizens who think that leaders are allowed to steal as long as they give a little bit in return (for those who were old enough in December '89, any similarities to "give them another hundred lei..."?).

Re: Romania is developing its own culture of protests

#14
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this really awkward in practice, or are you imagining so as an observer trying to make sense of protestors?

I think its awkward in both positions but the protesters have objectives. The "Victoria" protesters want to see the government formed in January to resign and the "Cotrocenii" protesters want for President Claus Iohannis to resign.

It's a well known fact that Cotroceni protesters are mostly poor and retired old people and they went there because they received some incentives. And btw it is spelled Cotroceni not Cotrocenii and Klaus not Claus.

Re: Romania is developing its own culture of protests

#15
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think its awkward in both positions but the protesters have objectives. The "Victoria" protesters want to see the government formed in January to resign and the "Cotrocenii" protesters want for President Claus Iohannis to resign.

Yeah, but I think you left out the fact that, at its peak, there were 300k "Victoria" protesters and 3k "Cotroceni" protesters. The "Cotroceni" protests are a joke.

You seem to forget that we live in a representative democracy. When the government was formed (PSD + ALDE) in January it won by a majority and there are no reasonable facts on why the government should resign.

I want to remind you that when the "Colective" horror happened the government resigned (PSD) but when a similar incident happened in the USA the president or any government official didn't resign.

If you think that we are more advanced than the american democracy then you sir ignore certain facts.

source:http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/12/04/oakland...

Re: Romania is developing its own culture of protests

#16

It is always a bit awkward to stop a protest once you achieved your primary goal. You are now a lot of people in the streets, with a lot of power, the government backs off. Should you ask for more or stick to the original requests that are now satisfied?

This sounds silly to me. Is it awkward to seek medical treatment after numbing the pain? Is it awkward to want the cure for the disease after treating a symptom?

To the people, achieving the primary goal is like stopping the bleeding from a gunshot wound. It's the first step in preventing something worse from happening, but it's not the last step in the fight against corruption. The bullet is still inside.

Re: Romania is developing its own culture of protests

#18
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think its awkward in both positions but the protesters have objectives. The "Victoria" protesters want to see the government formed in January to resign and the "Cotrocenii" protesters want for President Claus Iohannis to resign.

It's a well known fact that Cotroceni protesters are mostly poor and retired old people and they went there because they received some incentives. And btw it is spelled Cotroceni not Cotrocenii and Klaus not Claus.

"Cotroceni not Cotrocenii and Klaus not Claus" I'd like to remind you that I'm not a bundle of CPU and memory working perfectly 24/7 and the same thing is true for you.

Moving on to important things. "It's a well known fact that Cotroceni protesters are mostly poor and retired old people and they went there because they received some incentives"

You seem to forget that the coalition PSD + ALDE won by a majority and that we live in a representative democracy not a direct democracy.

Re: Romania is developing its own culture of protests

#19
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but I think you left out the fact that, at its peak, there were 300k "Victoria" protesters and 3k "Cotroceni" protesters. The "Cotroceni" protests are a joke.

You seem to forget that we live in a representative democracy. When the government was formed (PSD + ALDE) in January it won by a majority and there are no reasonable facts on why the government should resign. I want to remind you that when the "Colective" horror happened the government resigned (PSD) but when a similar incident happened in the USA the president or any government official didn't resign. If you think…

If one of the first laws you try to pass is to legalize bribes lower than $50k to save your party leader and his cronies, it means that you deceived your voters.

Re: Romania is developing its own culture of protests

#20
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our president Claus Iohannis has started a war with the winning party PSD. He encouraged people to protest against PSD and now supporters of PSD are protesting against Iohannis. I'm ashamed by my country but hey it could be worse.

Yeah, right... The government passes an emergency ordinance quietly during the night, aimed at saving the party's leader, and you blame the president. IOW, people shouldn't think for themselves because there are leaders elected to do just that. What I'm really ashamed of is that there are still many Romanian citizens who think that leaders are allowed to steal as long as they give a little bit in return (for those wh…

My parents fled Romania. What is the significance of that phrase?
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