Bucharest, Timisoara Join Worldwide Anti-Lockdown Protests

Protesters in Bucharest and Timisoara joined a worldwide movement opposing the lockdown measures and COVID-19 restrictions enforced by authorities. Across European or North American cities, similar protests took place. Among them, protesters from cities in UK, Germany. France, The Netherlands or Canada wanted their governments to know that they disagree with any further restrictions.

In London tens of protesters were handcuffed and taken to custody after thousands of Londoners took to the streets. In Kessel, Germany, 20,000 people clashed violently with the security forces. In Toronto protesters asked for the restrictions to be lift off.

In Bucharest, thousands of protesters gathered in the city center with national flags and orthodox icons in hands, singing Pink Floyd’s lyrics of “Another Brick in the Wall” song. The gathering place, Universitate Square, is the place of choice for this sort of protests, remembering the locals of the days when they were protesting against communism and neo-communism. In Timisoara, protesters gathered in front of the City Cathedral, the very place where 32 years ago the Romanian Revolution started.

Interesting enough, also in Germany there are similarities between the nowadays protests and the protests from 32 years ago, when the Eastern Europe broke the Iron Curtain and overthrown communism. In fact, in Kessel, people chanted “Wir sind das Volk” (“We are the people”), a slogan taken from the peaceful protests that led to the end of communist East Germany in 1989.

Of course, it’s not the same context, but a certain social tension is growing. These protests can steam it off to a certain extent, but, along with new restrictions, the people will become less willing to accept them without protesting.

Meanwhile, the third wave of Coronavirus fills in the ICU rooms in most of the countries. One year of lockdown and restrictions brought the whole world to where we started in the first place, only this time with vaccines to fight the pandemic.

In Romania, authorities hope for 70% of the adult population to be immunized through vaccination by September, while other European countries hope for similar goals. Will the people be able to respect the social distancing rules for another 6 months? Is Romania, as well as the other European countries, going to enter another lockdown? These are the questions whose answers no authority can offer at this moment and the evolution of the pandemic is the only one to determine the necessary measures.