What
happened on 10 August in Victory Square in Bucharest will raise a
multitude of questions and will give rise to many ongoing debates.
But not only on the subject of the brutal repression of the police
and the political links which go right to the top of the PSD-ALDE
regime, and not only because of the sufferings inflicted on a large
number of citizens, who were in the Square (including a significant
number of women, old people and children) to protest in a civilised
and peaceful manner against the Government, as happens in any other
EU country, where democracy functions properly.
The
events of 10 August also contain details which should be studied,
debated, clarified and realised in the form of conclusions and
directives to follow in the future. The first aspect to review is the
idea, even the initiative, to organise such a demonstration. A
demonstration of Romanians who work abroad has never been organised
in the country before, it’s an absolute first. And as well as it
being an absolute first, there’s also the question of the
time chosen for this demonstration, during the month of August, when
many people are on holiday, Parliament is not in session, and many of
those active in different organisations and state institutions like
the magistrates, public prosecutors etc. are away. So one has to ask
the question then, why were the people of the diaspora called in to
this demonstration?
How
much more effective is a demonstration if such a large number of
people from the diaspora takes part? Up until now, Romanians living
abroad who are appalled by the regressive course of the political
regime which has been in place in Bucharest since last year, have
participated in demonstrations, whether large or small, in the big
cities of the countries where they live and work (France, UK,
Germany, Italy etc). Was their presence in such a large number at the
demonstration of 10 August in Bucharest considered to be more
effective than their supportive presence at the demonstrations
abroad; and that it could even clear the way towards a political
solution for the present crisis? Difficult to say clearly.
Another
oddity is the time chosen for this demonstration. Why would such a
big demonstration, right in the middle of summer, here in Bucharest,
be more effective than the demonstrations in winter, spring or
autumn?
The
demonstrators have been reproached, many times, for choosing to come
out into the streets at the end of the week, marching in front of the
buildings of the most important institutions of the country, which
were completely empty at the time, and so gaining minimum
impact on the targeted policy of the current government, which is
contrary to the rule of law. On the evening of 10 August 2018, the
government building was empty, the First Minister (Dancila) and the
other ministers were on holiday: who could the demonstrators have
addressed and so, what was the point of making their demands? Who
could they have discussed things with, to bring an objective to this
great gathering?
Another
very curious aspect of the affair concerns the planning and
organisation of this important demonstration. The Romanian
communities working in all the countries of the European Union were
summoned to Bucharest for the 10 August 2018 and, as we have seen,
many people responded and came there. They were convinced that things
would go well, persuaded that they would be able to influence those
in government to change their way of practising politics and to make
them stop their attacks against the rule of law, which risks pushing
Romania outside the boundary of democratic Europe.
In
fact, several organisers began making approaches to Bucharest’s
city hall, in order to authorize the demonstration. Sometimes the
Mayor seemed to approve, sometimes, on various pretexts, not to give
permission. This vacillating attitude of the General Mayor underlines
several questions. Why did the Mayor’s office initially refuse its
approval and why did it finally return to this decision? Difficult to
give a precise reply, since we do not know all the ins and outs of
the affair.
However,
there are even more questions regarding the people or the entities
who were placed as official organisers. After their many approaches
to the Mayor General of Bucharest, shortly before 10 August, they all
withdrew and refused to take on the role of organisers, a role which
they had claimed up till then, by way of recommendation to the
public. There is no logic to this way of procedure.
They
mobilised the diaspora Romanians, preparing them to come in large
numbers to Bucharest to participate in the demonstration, and
suddenly they abandoned them, but they did not call off the
demonstration. Quite the contrary, they gave out the message that the
demonstration could still go ahead even in this highly charged
context. This way of procedure, whether deliberate or through a
foolish mistake, resembles guides who lead a group of people to a
certain place, and for a reason known only to themselves, expose
these unprotected people.
From
a military point of view, this resembles a tactic consistent with
drawing people into an ambush. My grandfather, during the Great War,
once found himself in a similar situation. He had a guide from a
village in Transylvania to show the Romanian soldiers the way; that
man led them all the way to a forest where he abandoned them, and
where the company immediately found themselves under intense fire,
sustained by sub-machine guns. By good fortune he escaped alive but
some of his soldiers were wounded or killed. Such traps may become
customary practice during a war with a foreign enemy, but not in
peacetime. Not when policemen, Romanians like yourself, who should be
there to protect you, come out in force, fully armed, like enemy
Austro-Hungarians who wanted to massacre the Romanian soldiers in
1916.
If
that’s how it really was, on that black Friday of 10 August 2018 on
Victory Square, then the moral to be drawn from it is that in the
future, no demonstration should take place in such an improvised way.
The false guides must be rejected and the groups of hooligans in the
police service, identified and disempowered.
This
kind of large scale gathering for peaceful protest, in which
Romanians have been involved for more than one and a half years,
needs a structured organisation and much more effective measures so
that the lives and safety of the participants are not in any way
exposed to unacceptable dangers. In order that Romania benefits, like
all civilised countries, from a functioning democracy, there is
absolutely no need either for new victims or new martyrs. The victims
of the communist dictatorship, the ‘terrorists’ of December 1989
and the ‘minors’ of June 1990 are already more than enough,
already too unbearable.
English
version by Morelle Smith
