Around 1,000 people protested against the government in Bucharest on September 3 and asked for Prime Minister Mihai Tudose’s resignation.

The rally follows recent controversial judicial reforms drafted by the government, discussions on lowering the contributions to the second pillar of the pension system and the government’s plans to withdraw Romania’s request to include the Rosia Montana area in Unesco’s world heritage list, which would allow the development of a controversial and much criticised gold project to go ahead.

Romania has been the scene of a series of protests since January this year, when the former government headed by Sorin Grindeanu adopted an emergency ordinance partly decriminalising abuse of office. Giving in to pressure from the street, the government later repealed the ordinance. Anti governmental protests have been organised regularly since then although on a much lower scale compared to the hundreds of thousands that turned out in early February.

“Enough, there are too many problems, the defiance is too big. We care about justice, pensions, Rosia Montana, forests and our legitimate rights and all these are threatened at the moment by Tudose and his fellows,” the Facebook event page read.

The protest was organised in Victory Square, the same location as the previous protests last winter. The protesters carried anti-government banners and chanted slogans such as “Second pillar is not for you”, “Justice, not corruption”, “Resignation”, Thieves,” and “PSD, the red plague” - a reference to the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD). The protest lasted around one and a half hours, as it was interrupted by heavy rain.  

According to the Facebook event page, “the proposals presented by Justice Minister Tudorel Toader represent an attack on the rule of law, the independence and proper functioning of justice, as well as on the anticorruption fight.”

At the end of August, Romania’s justice ministry published draft amendments to the three key laws governing the judicial system and announced that the documents had been sent to the magistrates’ body CSM for endorsement. The amendments envisage that the president will no longer be in charge of appointing the head prosecutor and that the judiciary inspection should be relocated from the CSM to the ministry of justice. The amendments have been harshly criticised by President Klaus Iohannis who called them “an attack on the rule of law, independence and good functioning of the justice and against the ancorruption fight.”

Participants in the rally also protested against the government’s plans to withdraw Romania’s request to Unesco to include Rosia Montana in the world heritage list. Canadian mining company Gabriel Resource’s planned project has been a very sensitive issue in Romania and has led to numerous protests over the years.

Since 1997, Gabriel Resources’s main focus has been the exploration and development of the Rosia Montana gold and silver project to operational status. It was anticipated that the project could, directly and indirectly, add over $24bn to Romania’s GDP. However, conflicts between rival political factions as well as strong opposition from environmentalists have ensured the project never got off the ground. 

It is currently the subject of international arbitration at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Gabriel Resources announced on June 29 that it will file a CAD5.7bn (€3.8bn) claim in its arbitration case against Romania, accusing the country of violating investment treaties regarding its project.

Tudose said last week that Romania will try to withdraw its request filed with the Unesco considering Romania could no longer exploit the resources at Rosia Montana because the government of Dacian Ciolos had asked that the area should be declared protected.

“Maybe you could ask Ciolos why in January, before he left, in the last days, he declared the whole area naturally protected and sent the papers to the Unesco. That means you are no longer allowed to dig a small hole there, not even for worms, because it is a protected area,” Tudose said, according to News.ro.

A possible cut in the contributions to the second pension pillar was also criticised by the protesters. Commenting on the ongoing debate on the second pillar of the pension system during a TV show, Tudose said that a final decision would be taken by the government this week. Contributions might remain at their current level (5.1% of gross wage) or might be halved to 2.5%, or employees might be asked to choose between the two, he implied.