One capital and two protests

Yesterday, a few thousand protesters attended the meeting hosted by the USL in the Triumph Arch area. At the same time, a few hundred people were protesting in the University square. Marius Militaru, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Administration and Internal Affairs, said: "Approximately 300 people are protesting in the University Square in Bucharest and 300 more people in other counties, aside from the 5,000 participants at the meeting of the USL".

The vibe was mixed: a lot of noise, but also a lot of smiling. The protesters were wearing Romanian flags and banners, with slogans like "A midget and a one eyed freak have been mocking the people", "Băsescu, don't forget, Romania doesn't want you", "What the people want: the resignation of the dictator", "Băsescu - PDL, debt, thieving, unemployment, poverty", "We are citizens, not worms", "Early elections". One man was yelling: "Up with Băsescu!", only to later yell "Down with Băsescu!". A female student of Piatra Neamţ, present at the Arch of Triumph, said: "Based on what I found, the people of PSD and PNL have gathered people from all the cities of the countries, they offered them free transportation and paid them 30-40 lei/each to participate in the protest for 2-3 hours. I refused to be paid, because I feel that getting paid for the participation in this protest would be moral prostitution. The opposition is no different than the PDL. We are not fighting, we are not protesting against one party or another, we are protesting the politicians and the system which they have implemented in Romania. I went to the University Square for three evenings in a row, and the protesters over there feel < < clean > >, they don't come to the square because of their own selfish interests. I only came to the Arch of Triumph to be together with the people in my city".

The Victoriei Square was blocked yesterday, aster several participants in the meeting of the USL reached the government building. According to Florin Hulea, the spokesperson of the Romanian Gendarmerie the protesters in question will be fined because they were supposed to protest in front of the Museum of the Romanian Peasants' Museum.

Traffic in the Victoriei Square resumed yesterday, as the protesters left the area, and the gendarmes withdrew as well. By the time the newspaper went to print, some of the protesters had set off towards the University Square.