2017–2019 Romanian protests
There were numerous protests against the Romanian Government between 2017 and 2019. In January 2017, days after the government of the Grindeanu Cabinet was sworn into office in Romania, protests took place throughout the country against ordinance bills that were proposed by the Romanian Ministry of Justice regarding the pardoning of certain committed crimes, and the amendment of the Penal Code of Romania. At the heart of these protests is the community Corruption Kills, founded by Florin Bădiță, who alongside other civic groups organized what proved to be the largest protests since 1989, thus realizing the "Revolution of our generation".
Despite the negative reactions from both the judicial institutions and the public, the newly sworn-in government secretly approved an ordinance modifying the Penal Code and Penal Procedure Code during the night of 31 January. Opponents raised accusations that the ordinance was intended for decriminalisation of government corruption, and to help hundreds of current and former politicians to escape ongoing criminal investigations or prison sentences.
Immediately after it was announced that the ordinance was passed, more than 37,000
people protested that night. The next day, on 1 February, the protests swelled to over 300,000 people throughout the country, continuing then daily and peaking on 5 February, when over 500,000 Romanians protested throughout the country, making the protests the largest since the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 and the overthrowing of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Since the main grievance of the protesters was not addressed, but rather gradually joined by the attempts of the parliament to relax the anti-corruption laws, the protests continued on an almost daily basis throughout the country, with more and more protesters demanding early elections in addition to the resignation of the government. After the winter of 2017, the next mass protest was on 20 January 2018, when 50,000 – 100,000 Romanians went to the streets to protest against proposed changes to the penal code and to the justice system laws. While protests on a smaller scale continued to happen almost daily, mass protests then erupted again on 10 August 2018, when an anti-government protest with the "Diaspora at Home" motto was held in Bucharest. The 10 August 2018 protest was marked by unprecedented levels of violence in comparison to the other 2017–2018 protests, and lead to an ongoing resurgence of mass protests in Romania.
By February 2017, protesters had succeeded in compelling the government in 2017 to withdraw the contested ordinance and Florin Iordache, who as justice minister was formally responsible for putting forward the ordinance, resigned shortly thereafter over the scandal that ensued.
Background
Although the government of Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu repeatedly denied that there were government ordinance bills regarding the pardoning and amnesty of committed crimes, there were strong rumours in the media that the government intended to pass such bills on 18 January 2017, mere days after the government was sworn in. Since the government did not publish the government meeting's agenda for that day, the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, took it upon himself to attend and preside over the meeting, as envisioned by Article 87 of the Constitution of Romania. After a private meeting between the president, the prime minister and the justice minister, the government meeting was convened and presided over by the president together with the prime minister. Despite the prime minister's initial attempt to block the press' attendance and subsequent avoidance of the subject, the president announced to the media that there were two bills regarding the pardoning of crimes and the amendment of the Penal Code of Romania. He further announced that the prime minister assured him that these ordinances would not be passed without a transparent process, which included consulting with the relevant judicial institutions, as well as the public.Soon after the government meeting, the Ministry of Justice published the bills on its website and sent them to the relevant judicial institutions for consultations. The government's main stated reason for these bills was that prisons were overcrowded and in order to avoid paying a fine to the European Court of Human Rights, such measures were needed to improve the conditions in prisons.
After analysing the provisions in the bills, the judicial institutions issued negative opinions on the proposed bills, generally stating that the laws would not achieve their stated goals and would rather undermine both the criminal justice system and the fight against corruption.
Civil society and certain media outlets also took a similar stance against the bills, and claimed that the government's reasoning for these bills conceals an intent to pardon convicted politicians and cease ongoing cases against accused politicians.
Protests
January 2017
Several thousand Romanians began protests against the reported plans to grant prison pardons and decriminalise certain offences. On 18 January, protests in a few cities were organised on social media against the proposed bills. Around 5,000 people protested throughout Romania, with nearly 4,000 protesters in Bucharest marching from University Square to the government's seat in Victory Square. Smaller protests were held in the cities of Cluj, Sibiu, Iași and Craiova.File:Protest against corruption - Bucharest 2017 - Arcul de Triumf - 2.jpg|thumb|Protesters in front of the Triumphal Arch, Kiseleff Road, Bucharest, on 22 January 2017
Following a mobilisation on social media after the initial protest, over 30,000 people protested on 22 January in Bucharest. President Klaus Iohannis participated in the event in order to show his solidarity with the protesters and announced to reporters that "a gang of politicians who have problems with the law want to change the legislation and weaken the state of law, and this is inadmissible... Romanians are rightly indignant." Liviu Dragnea, the leader of Romania's Social Democratic Party, reacted by accusing Iohannis of leading a Mineriad and labelling the protests as the beginning of a coup. The leader of the party Save Romania Union, Nicușor Dan, and interim leader of the National Liberal Party, Raluca Turcan, were also present at the protest in support of the protesters. Over 5,000 people also participated at the protests in Cluj-Napoca, and another 4,000 protesters in Timișoara. There were also notable protests in Sibiu, Iasi, Brasov, Bacau and Constanta, as well as solidarity meeting in Copenhagen, Paris, London and Haugesund.
In what was described as "the largest protest after the Revolution", tens of thousands of people again took to the streets in Romania's main cities on 29 January. Over 50,000 people were attending the protest in Bucharest, while several tens of thousands of protesters were registered across the rest of the country. For instance, some 10,000 people took to the streets in Cluj-Napoca. In total, over 90,000 people attended the protests, according to an estimate by Digi24 TV station. In Bucharest, the crowd of protesters gathered in the centre of the city, at University Square, and went on a peaceful march that included planned stops at the media watchdog CNA, the Ministry of Justice, the HQ of the Ombudsman and the government. Solidarity marches took place in several countries abroad, with the largest reported in Brussels, Paris, London, Rome and Copenhagen.
After the Grindeanu Cabinet approved the aforementioned emergency ordinances on Tuesday evening, 31 January, thus turning them into laws, an impromptu protest took place at Piața Victoriei in front of Victoria Palace, the government seat. Although the government meeting's agenda only included the approval of the proposed 2017 budget, the cabinet secretly introduced and approved the ordinance bills during the meeting that evening. Once the Justice Minister of Romania, Florin Iordache, announced to the press that evening that the bills had been approved, a protest started taking place 30 minutes afterwards. Within two hours, the protest swelled to 15,000 people despite the late hours and cold weather. Due to the small initial presence of the gendarmes, the Victoria Palace was surrounded by the protesters and the main entrances blocked. The protest only subsided by 2 am. Unlike the previous protests, the people participating were visibly more riled up considering the lack of transparency and the lack of consideration of the Romanian society's reactions by the government and PSD. As a result, the protesters were calling for the government's resignation.
Thousands of people also came out to protest in other cities throughout Romania against the ordinances adopted by the government: Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Sibiu, Brașov, Iași, Ploiești and Constanța.
February 2017
As a result of the government refusing to repeal the ordinances, the protests continued on 1 February with 230,000 to 300,000 people participating throughout the country. So far, these were the largest protests in Romania since the fall of the communist regime. The calls for the repeal of the ordinances, as well as for the resignation of the government, continued. Around 150,000 people peacefully protested in Bucharest.The rest of the protests throughout the country were started and ended peacefully, with the participation being as follows: Cluj-Napoca: 35,000, Timișoara: 20,000, Sibiu: 20,000, Iași: 10,000, Brașov: 8,000, Târgu-Mureș: 6,000, Constanța: 5,000, Bacău: 6,000, Alba Iulia: 5,000, Craiova: 4,000, Galați: 3,500, Arad: 2,500, Mediaș: 2,000, and Brăila: 1,000. There were also protests in cities throughout Europe with large Romanian immigrant communities, mostly in London, Paris, Munich, Brussels, Dublin, Turin, Copenhagen and Stockholm.
On 2 February, over 200,000 people protested, with 80,000 in Bucharest. On each of the next two days, more than 300,000 people participated in protests with more than 150,000 in Bucharest alone.File:"A" VENIT MINERII Placard during 2017 Victoria Square Protests.jpg|thumb|Protesters on Victory Square, Bucharest, 5 February. The text is a reference to the Romanian Mineriad and roughly translates to "The miners 'has' arrived".|alt=
Although the Grindeanu Cabinet adopted a new ordinance bill repealing the original bill, on 5 February, between 500,000 and 600,000 people participated in the largest protests in Romania's history. The uncertain constitutionality of the new ordinance as well as the refusal of the government to meet any other demands, including the resignation of the entire cabinet, especially the justice minister, and new elections, led the protesters to question the government's determination and the finality of the matter. Furthermore, Prime Minister Grindeanu stated that the government would try instead to pass the majority of the content from the original ordinance in a new bill through Parliament, angering protesters further. According to estimates by Digi24, 300,000 people were present at the protest in Bucharest, followed by Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Timișoara, Iași, Ploiești, Brașov, Craiova, Baia Mare, Constanța, Oradea and Bacău. Hotnews.ro provided a lower estimate for Bucharest, of 250,000.
An estimated 50,000 people continued to protest on 6 February demanding the resignation of Grindeanu Cabinet, with between 20,000 and 25,000 protesting in front of the Government's building in Bucharest, and some other 25,000 protesters around the country. As many as 15,000 people protested throughout the country with 8,000 in Bucharest on 7 February, and on 8 February, over 9,000 protesters in Bucharest and 8,000 in the rest of the country.
For the 13th consecutive day of protests on 12 February, 50,000 to 70,000 people participated in protests in front of the Victoria Palace, and 30,000 to 33,000 were elsewhere throughout the country, of which 10,000 to 14,000 protested in Cluj-Napoca, 7,000 to 10,000 in Sibiu, 3,000 to 5,000 in Timișoara, 3,000 in Iași, 1,500 in Brașov, 500 in Constanța, 400 in Craiova, 300 in Galați, and 300 in Oradea.