New Protest in Bucharest Against Restrictions

Another protest took place in Bucharest on Saturday, April 3, despite the 20.00 hours curfew rule. Hundreds of protesters marched on the streets and shouted against restrictions in front of the key institutions: Ministry of Interior, Palace of Parliament and Government building.

The presence of the Romanian flags, waved by the protesters, defined once again this movement. Peaceful people, some with Orthodox icons in hands, some with national flags, some with cardboards with written messages for the authorities, ask for the Government to lift the restrictions.

Meanwhile, the authorities ignored once again the protesters. The Romanian president chose to celebrate the protestant Easter holidays in his residence, in Sibiu and no other official spoke about the protests. By ignoring the movement, the authorities hope for its strength to fade out. If this is the best tactics or not, we’ll only see in a couple of weeks.

The situation of the pandemic in Romania seems stable currently, as the daily number of newly detected cases is around 6,000. Also, the vaccination rate has a good pace, with 2 million Romanians already immunized. Yet, the authorities decided to enforce a curfew at 8 PM for all the localities where the infection rate exceeded 7 cases per thousand inhabitants in the previous 14 days, but also decided to close the stores at 6 PM. This decision crowded the stores, as the opening hours are less and people still have to buy goods in the same amount.

One secretary of state from the Ministry of Health proposed a hilarious decision: in her opinion, people have to go shopping less often. Not only that Romanians do not shop multiple times a day, but instead of going to their favorites shopping places, Romanians now choose to go shopping at the gas stations after 6PM, which are opened 24/7.

One conclusion is clear: Romanians keep on protesting, the authorities keep on ignoring them and the pandemic goes on disregard of the restrictions enforced. Let’s not forget that in Germany and France, countries where authorities imposed lockdowns, the situation hasn’t improved as much as they expected.

As a comparison, in Texas, a criticized measure showed the exactly opposite effects: The state lifted the mandatory mask rule and opened the businesses. In just three weeks the pandemic slowed down, the number of daily cases and the one of the hospitalized persons reached a 6 months low as reported by Newsweek.

The pandemic is not going to be stopped by the protests, but it’s also clear it’s not going to be stopped by the mandatory mask rule or the 8 PM curfew, let alone by the lockdowns and other restrictions. While the businesses go bankrupt and people lose their sanity in Romania because of the pandemic restrictions, the only thing to stop the madness is the rationality. It’s one thing which is missing in the chaos.