Romanian Anti-corruption Protests Turn Violent

Tens of thousands of Romanians were out on the streets this weekend to protest corruption, low wages, and the ruling Social Democratic Party’s (PSD) attempts to weaken the judiciary.

Around 400 people were reported injured and 43 were hospitalized during the protests after Romanian riot police forcibly dispersed the crowds at the height of the demonstration on August 10.

According to the president of Bucharest-based think-tank Expert Forum Sorin Ioniţă, the police’s decision to use force was “irresponsible” and “disproportionate,” as only a small group of protesters was provoking the police officers.

READ MORE: Hundreds Injured in Romania’s Anti-Government Protest

Ioniță says that these small groups of disruptive demonstrators are local football fans, who regularly clash with law enforcement at sporting events.

“They have a very small core of supporters, maybe two or three hundred each, who are more like small organized groups, gangs of violence, [with] racist slogans, and they go to matches just to fight,”  Ioniță told Hromadske.

The August 10 demonstration is the latest in a string of anti-corruption protests since the start of 2017. The last large-scale protests took place at the end of 2017 and into early 2018. That time, protesters came out against new judicial reform that would have essentially granted corrupt officials amnesty.

READ MORE: Romania Protests Corrupt Officials

Many of the participants were from the Romanian diaspora, who returned especially for the demonstrations. Ioniță notes that these Romanians are normally pro-reform.

Tensions between the PSD and the country’s anti-corruption institutions have been high. At the beginning of July, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis approved the dismissal of anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi from her position as head of the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA). In that role, Kovesi had overseen a number of high-profile cases against officials, eliciting resistance from Iohannis’s ruling PSD, and praise from the European Union.

Photo credit: EPA-EFE/Bogdan Cristel

However, Kovesi has a new role as anti-corruption counselor to the General Prosecutor, and her former deputy is now the interim DNA head, so Ioniță believes little has actually changed.

He told Hromadske that more protests are likely if the Romanian Ministry of Justice, which will appoints the new DNA head, “chooses obviously bad people for the position.”

“The signal is that they tried to stop the institution, but their success is partial,” adds Ioniță. The strong opposition within the government to curbing corruption ultimately makes it difficult for the anti-corruption directorate to do its job.

What’s more, civil society activists – Ioniță included – have criticized the DNA recently for their “incompetence and foolishness” in certain high-profile cases, like their investigation into Romania’s former Prime Minister Victor Ponta. Ponta allegedly promoted a businessman into parliament in exchange for sponsoring a visit from former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, but the DNA prosecutors ultimately failed to make their case in court.

/By Liuda Kornievych and Sofia Fedeczko