An Eye Witness Account from the Heart of the Citizens’ Protests at the University Square – Bucharest, Romania, 2012
I left Budapest on 13th January to visit the family in my home town, Bucharest. If anyone had asked me at that time for how long I would be away from CEU, I would have answered that in ten days max, I’d return. At that time, nobody could have predicted the turning of events in the streets of Romania and how wrong my answer was.
While reaching Bucharest, I’ve heard on the news that an anti-governmental protest has formed in various cities and towns throughout the country as a response to the dismissal of a deputy minister in the health department. A day later, I saw violence erupting on TV, and riots taking place in the same style as those happening in Paris and London in the past. Protesters throwing stones, and showing their indignation at all forms of authority, while the police forces answering with tear gas and harsh beatings. Given the news coverage, I was initially scared and sceptical to step in and join the crowds the following day. I was even suspecting the opposition parties to have staged the event in an attempt to topple the government and take over the office. However my curiosity has won against all rationality, and I stepped in the square.
What I found there to my surprise, was a mass of peaceful people of all ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and ideologies chanting together for the first time in 22 years for a substantial change in Romania. Feminists, environmentalists, monarchists, anarchists, neoliberals, socialists, football supporters, homeless people, doctors, construction workers, and you name any category, have gathered spontaneously acting upon an on an indignation that has accumulated throughout the post-1989 period in Romania. I immediately realized that this protest is not about a simple change of government or policies but it goes much beyond this. The heterogeneity of the messages, the physical and psychological strength of the people facing the police forces’ constant actions of intimidation as well as resistance to the -20 degrees Celsius weather have all shown that for the first time since the Romanian revolution, a true civic activist spirit is being formed in Romania.
In over two months of staying together, the protesters have gradually got to know each other, and have developed a sense of solidarity that transcends any group belonging while being connected through the common goal for a real reform made by the citizens for the citizens in Romania. The University Square has thus transformed itself in a place of freedom where anyone is welcome to join, and express his/her views, problems, indignation, or solutions. It became an Agora, a free minded place for an active and concerned deliberation. Finally, the University Square became above all, a true state of spirit with the goal of bringing a proper deliberative democracy in Romania in which authorities of whichever political affiliation may hold are finally made accountable to those that have elected them in the first place.
Over time, the group has faced constant intimidation from the authorities, the right for the freedom of speech and assembly having been constantly curtailed, arrests being made on peaceful processions, photos and ID checks being constantly performed by the secret service personnel, infiltrators joining the group. However, they have not succeeded in stopping the unstoppable: the embryo of the Romanian civic activism.If the protest will be successful in toppling the current government and president has faded in importance to the main achievement reached so far: the gathering of a diverse group of people that would have not met otherwise, and that will keep contact and work constantly towards building a civic consciousness in Romania for the next decades or so. Our role is to make citizens aware that they matter and that it is their duty and right to come to the streets to express their views, and put pressure on authorities whenever they feel that their rights have been violated.
Today, we are at the end of March, the protest keeps on going, and I am still not back in Budapest; I am witnessing the long term unfolding of a coup de foudre between democracy and citizens in this part of the world, and I have a feeling that the relationship between the two can only grow in time.
With the arrival of spring, more love stories can occur. Citizens in the entire region are eager to fall in love with democracy, and have been waiting for it for a very long time. Hungary, you may be next! :)
Teddy Florea
ROMANIA
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