Demonstrations were held in several places in Romania due to the epidemic restrictions, to which the extreme nationalist Transylvanian Association for the Unification of Romanians (AUR) also joined. The party's sympathizers demanded the resignation of Raed Arafat, the State Secretary for Disaster Management, who communicated the decisions of the epidemic task force, and then, unsurprisingly, the xenophobic sentiments turned against the Hungarians.
In Bucharest, thousands of people protested on Monday night against the health restrictions aimed at curbing the coronavirus epidemic, but the mostly peaceful demonstration turned violent on Tuesday morning: around three hundred protesters threw stones and bottles at the law enforcement officers, broke shop windows, damaged trash cans, and benches.
At a press conference on Tuesday morning, the Bucharest gendarmerie commander said: 222 fines worth 200,000 lei (14.8 million forints) were imposed, and 188 protesters were prosecuted for rioting, disturbing the peace, carrying prohibited weapons, vandalism and other crimes.
In Romania, the government decision went into effect on Sunday evening, which increases the duration of the night curfew by two hours and reduces the opening hours of shops in those settlements where the rate of spread of coronavirus infections has accelerated. Among other things, the government decision prohibits the operation of clubs, bars, discotheques and arcades.
Spontaneous demonstrations broke out in many localities against the restrictions on the night of Monday, in which the participants mostly demanded "freedom" and urged the lifting of the obligation to wear masks and the curfew and restrictions on opening hours.
By Monday afternoon, the opposition Association for the Unification of Romanians (AUR), which had just gained parliamentary representation with its nationalist and virus-denying voices, had announced demonstrations in all the country's county seats, and the leaders of the party took part in the demonstration in Bucharest.
According to the reports of the local media, the speakers at the anti-government demonstrations in many places were football fans who had been regularly present at the AUR's movements in the past. In several cities of the country, they demanded the resignation of Raed Arafat, the State Secretary for Disaster Prevention, who communicated the decisions of the epidemic task force, in Timişoara they shouted under the window of the city's German mayor, "Remember, Herr Fritz, Timişoara is not Auschwitz", and in Pitesti, xenophobic emotions were at the moment they had already turned against the Hungarians, and the demonstrators chanted the rhyme "Out with the Hungarians from the country" that was heard from time to time in the stands in Romania.
MTI
