The contrast between the events that happened during the last ten days in Romania represents a new exercise of democracy, an exercise that was not characteristic to the Romanian people. The Romanian Autumn is a concept “borrowed” from the slogans used by the thousands of protesters that gather every night in the University Square, in the center of the Romanian capital city, Bucharest. In some nights, they are only 1000, while in others, the number is larger. The movement gained recognition across the world on Sunday night, when 12 000 people went to a march across the entire center of Bucharest, protesting against the decision of the Government to send a controversial law project to the Parliament, a project that will allow a phantom Canadian corporation called Gabriel Resources to exploit the biggest gold reserve in Europe, which is situated in a small Romanian locality called Rosia Montana.
Rosia Montana is discussed for 15 years in Romania. During this period, many other controversial projects were initiated by the Romanian Government through the Parliament, ravaging the resources of the country and putting serious money into the pockets of some important people. This category of people, heavily connected in the economical and political world of Romania were called “The Smart Guys”. In this country, we can talk about “The Smart Guys from Energy”, “The Smart Guys from Agriculture” or from Constrictions, people that live without worries today, although they are guilty of the poor state of the economy, and of the low level of life in Romania, one of the poorest country of the European Union.
Why is Rosia Montana so important?
Considering that many other abusive decisions were taken by the governments that ruled Romania since the Revolution in 1989 (when the rulers Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were executed, ending a 40 years period of communism in this country), the reaction of the Romanian people is somewhat surprising, especially for the authorities that are used to do whatever they do, whenever they want to do it. In other European Countries, protests for ecological matters are common, but in Romania, we will have to analyze the history of this country to determine why this protest can be considered as the defining point of the new generation, and maybe the sign of a real change.
Communism Reminiscences
It is important to analyze the impact of the Romanian revolution in 1989, to understand why Romania was never a real democratic country even after this period. The communism era was a dark one for this country, an era that brought the common citizen to desperation. Before 1989, even the bread and food were rationalized, the media was censored, and while the basic functionalities of the society, such as healthcare and education, practically didn’t existed, the Ceausescu family started some grandiose projects, such as the People’s House (the House of Parliament as it is called today), the second largest building in the world, but also the Danube-Black Sea Channel, which was built by political imprisoned citizens which opposed the Communism regime. The revolution in 1989 was unexpected, fast and violent. Many aspects are not clear for Romanians even today. Immediately after the revolution, new political “faces” such as Ion Iliescu, which was the president of Romania for almost 10 years appeared. The new political structure was in fact formed of old Communist activists, which were able to foresee the fall of the old regime. Under the cover of a fake democracy, those structures continued to rob the country, creating the so-called Smart Guys that we talked about earlier. Romanians tried new and new rulers, so the Political parties changed sides once every four or eight years. During this period, every major infrastructure or investment project in Romania was attributed in the base of rigged auctions to the company that was able to bribe the people in charge of attributing those projects. One of those projects was the gold mine exploitation from Rosia Montana, given to the phantom company Gabriel Resources Ltd., which functions in Romania under the relatively legal name of Rosia Montana Gold Corporation.
Why was the project delayed for so long?
Since the moment when the contract was signed, it was continuously debated and contested. Many governments changed since then, and all of them sustained the project, claiming that it will create important working places in the Rosia Montana area, where unemployment is up to 70%. The majority of prime ministers anticipated the impact on the Romanian people. Even the current Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, the president of the Social-Democrat Party declared one year ago that is was totally against the project. By that time, Ponta was the leader of the Opposition. A few months later, profiting from a happy events turnover, the Social-Democrat Party came into power, and Ponta became the Prime Minister overnight.
During the last 15 years, Rosia Montana Gold Corporation invested hundreds of millions of dollars in advertisement for the project, but also for convincing the locals from Rosia Montana about the benefits of the project, and for relocating them. Such a powerful corporation would not have invested so much if they were not sure about the result. Their solid “foundation” was the inclination of the Romanian politician for bribes and commissions, which allowed them to propose a contract that is disastrous for the Romanian people. On XXX, Victor Ponta announced that the project would be sent to the parliament, thinking that things will be as they used to be. Premier Ponta had some strong arguments on his side: the televisions managed by “local barons”, where Rosia Montana Gold Corporation invested missions of dollars in Advertising, and the hope that the Romanian people will forget about this abuse easily, just as they forgot about many other abuses before. This time, he was wrong.
The 2012 Protests
Even if Victor Ponta was considered a popular politician a few years ago, being a part of the younger branch of public figures in Romania (he is only xxx years old), his popularity started to fall even since the first day when he was named Prime Minister. Ponta seems to forget how he came into power last year, through the voice of the people in the same University Square. In January 2012, Romania was governed by the rival party of Ponta’s Social Democrats, the Liberal-Democrat party, with a marionette Prime Minister, Emil Boc. Emil Boc was in fact the right hand and a humble executor of Traian Basescu’s orders, the President of Romania, and the ex-leader of the Liberal-Democrats. The Boc Government had one of the longest lifespan in the modern history or Romania, a government that is not remembered with pleasure by the Romanians. Fed up with years of austerity, small salaries and abuses from the government, justified by the “Economical Recession”, people decided to gather in the University Market in XXX January 2012. It was a “colored” gathering, with people of all social statutes and ages, protesting against the abuses of the Liberal-Democrats ruled by Boc and Basescu. The protests were generally peaceful, until the night of XXX, when the Football galleries of the most important Bucharest football teams joined the protests. The night ended up with people being beaten by the Romanian police, many arrests and with the reason for Boc to say that this protest was framed by the Social Democrats. The protests continued for a few days more, but the number of protesters was reduced to 600-700 people, which were eventually sent home by the cold weather, with -20 degrees Celsius during the night
The Effects of 2012 protests
Even if the movement was suffocated by the Liberals, president Traian Basescu had to find somebody to be sacrificed. Considering the abysmal low popularity of the Prime Minister Boc, he was “chosen” as guilty for the entire poor economic, politic and social state of the country. Another marionette government was installed by president Traian Basescu, but the damage was already done. A few months later, helped by the Liberal-Democrat traitors that joined the Social Democrats, and their alliance party, the Liberals, Victor Ponta was installed as Prime Minister.
Rosia Montana today
One year after the declaration of Prime Minster Ponta that he is against the project, his government approves the project, and sends it to the parliament for validation. He hoped that it would go unnoticed, just like tens of other abuses. Unfortunately, Ponta forgot that, one way or the other, he came into power by a popular movement. Just like the 2012 protests, the Romanian Autumn was organized on social networks, generally Facebook, because Romanians are not the fans of Twitter and other social networks. The televisions that are bought by Rosia Montana Gold Corporation tried to ignore this event, giving sparse “briefs” about a few hundreds people protesting against the project. Some televisions even tried to claim that the streets movements are organized by political figures. What they can’t hide is the fact that this movement is spontaneous, organized on social networks by young people with no political color and interests.
Why are the Rosia Montana protests important?
The new protests are the manifestation of a new generation, a generation that is fed up with abuses. The protesters managed to keep the movement out of the political sphere. The slogans of protesters are directed against the government, but they are strictly connected with the environment aspect of the problem, and with the disadvantageous contract that will be signed between the Romanian state and the Canadians “investors”. The state will get 6% from the gold at Rosia Montana, but there are many other rare metals to exploit there. Some say that those metals are more valuable than the gold, and those metals are not stated in any contract. The government still tries to justify the contract with the work places that will be created, but it is not enough for the protesters. Moreover, Ponta looks ridiculous when he says that he will vote against the project in the parliament, as long as he proposed the law as a prime minister. This sudden change appeared when people started to come in the streets, which shows an obvious truth: after almost twenty-five years from the first Revolution, Romania finally starts to breathe the real air of democracy, where the voice of the people can’t be neglected anymore, and where the politicians have to think twice before fooling the Civic Society. The Romanian Autumn follows the Brazilian Spring and the Arabian Summer, showing that something is about to change in the entire world.