Protests in Bucharest. After four days

This is the fifth day of the protests.

Mostly young people are gathering again today, in University Square, to rally against the decision of the government to sustain the exploitation at Rosia Montana.

After the initial protests on Sunday mainstream media had to react and tried to minimize the protests and their meaning, and even tried to change the public agenda. Those who have chosen the uncomfortable way of protesting into the streets were accused of being nothing more than a bunch of dreamers, hipsters, socialists and anti-capitalists. Generally, these accusations were made by that part of the press previously involved in agreements with RGMC.

In fact, protests at Piata Universitatii have nothing to do with the right or the left. People are equally dissatisfied with both, to be honest. The protests have a lot to do, for a change, with the way governments (politicians) understand how to govern Romania. They have a lot to do with the huge distance between politicians and citizens. They have everything to do with what is generically called BAD GOVERNMENT, lack of legitimacy, lack of dialogue between the power and the rest, lack of real democracy.

Again, these protests are not against (foreign) corporations and capitalism. All the people I know, people who are involved in these protests, generally work in a foreign corporation, have better education than most of their compatriots, have more money, travel more and mostly vote with the right wing - when they do vote. They are not nationalist, they are only patriots. Personally, I have two jobs (one in a foreign corporation), I travel abroad and I vote with the right, when I do. These protests are against such a situation when a certain government tries to impose a law dedicated to a single company, a law which can be described in a few words as a result of the lobby of the company in question. What has this to do with (opposition to) real capitalism ?

If I decided to get out and protest, not only to observe, it was because this is a clear situation of abuse. It is a clear situation of aggression against individual property. It is also a very, very clear situation of a extremely bad deal made by a government pretending to represent me, and in the top of that, eventually it is I who would have to support the costs for many years to come, along with my compatriots, not the members of this government. Guess what ? I don't want to, not anymore.

PS. I am sure there are plenty of bad deals already made, in mining as well as other fields. These protests represent a landmark : it is with the dismissal of Raed Arafat last year or the law on Rosia Montana this year that people show all of this is enough. Such deals made by those who temporarily govern the country will no longer be accepted by the society.