What's truly going on in Romania

[Sierra85]

I hope everything works out in a positive manner in Romania! Sorry to see this

chances are it will.

the only thing i know about romania is it is very close to Transylvania which is where dracula ?

[Sorshen]

chances are it will.

the only thing i know about romania is it is very close to Transylvania which is where dracula ?

Transylvania is a region in Romania...

[Deleted]

also your forgetting @Snowraven
i would like to see his take on it.

Thank you for remembering me and summoning me!

Now on to analyzing the OP's post, I will try to keep it short but... some things have to be explained since the OP goes from things that are true to full lies, it's like reading ancient aliens here, going from actual existing pyramids to extraterrestrials building them:
Yes, in 2004 Traian Basescu became president of Romania. He was, and still is, a populist leader that tried to transform Romania into a presidential republic so that he could rule it as he wanted.

He was indeed supported by the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democrat Party (PD, later becoming PDL). He did try to replace people with those loyal to him... unfortunately for him, it didn't work so well. One of the people that he had been working with was a former prime minister of Romania, Calin Popescu Tariceanu. Now, due to Basescu's attempt at seizing power, this created a conflict between him and Tariceanu, another man who would have liked to rule as he wanted.
Now, Florian Coldea and Laura Codrutza Kovesi. One was the head of the SRI (Romanian Intelligence Service) and one was and still is the head of DNA (Anticoruption National Department). Were they supported by Basescu? Yes, they were. But they started prosecuting criminals from all sides. This ended angering Basescu to the point that today he supports the removal of Kovesi from DNA leadership. Coldea had already resigned from SRI leadership following a scandal.
Is Kovesi perfect? No, most surely not! She might have indeed been protecting Basescu at the beginning and I wouldn't mind seeing her removed from her position (though not replaced with a PSD puppet, since then we're basically invalidating the removal).
As for Coldea, he kept a mostly private life, so not much was known from him until the scandal.

Now, onwards to our current president. He had a problem with houses. Essentially in communism times communists took houses from people. When communism fell, the state decided, at the suggestion of the EU, to give the houses back to original owners and compensate the current owners. However, "smart" people tried to profit of this: they'd trick the old owners into selling their rights for a sum now and then they'd sell the ownership rights later for more. Also, the current owners also feared the state not giving them enough compensation, so they tried to quickly sell to unsuspecting others, even if for slightly less than market price.
So our current president also bought two of these houses. Yet the people that had bought the rights to them from those that had occupied them under pre-communist takeover sued.
So we reach a giant mess. Because people who have no connection at all to those that had their houses confiscated are now suing people that did not live in them when communism fell. And our current president did indeed lose a house from this and is still in trial over a second one.

In 2016 PNL did a shit job in elections indeed. PSD, our current ruling party, won, indeed, with 45% of votes from 42% of voters who voted. Of course, they lacked a majority, so they allied with ALDE, a party formed by... Calin Popescu Tariceanu! oh wait! That guy from earlier!
Some words about Calin Popescu Tariceanu, besides the attempt to control power as prime minister earlier, he's also a piece of shit that believes that laws don't apply to him. His permit was raised for being in a motorbyke accident for drunk driving, he skipped the queue hundreads of people had made for license plate registration by using his political status and a few other things.

And now, the OP's post goes into a complete lie, this one:
"they used their immense propaganda powers to start the idea that the new government wants to free convicts from prisons as well as make corruption legal"
This is a complete and utter lie. This was not a propaganda machine. This was a fact! The Government, after being put in power only 3 months ago, started talking about amnesty for small criminals and about changing the Legal Code to fit a decision of the National Law Court about abuse in service.
Here is even a source of that, there are many, but most are in Romanian (observe the date though: 18 Ianuarie 2017, way before protests started, yet he is talking about changes to the code of laws and releasing inmates):
http://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/politic...pene-live.html

Their arguments were as follows:
-regarding amnesty/releasing inmates - prisons in Romania are overcrowded, some prosecutors are too zealous, we'll get a fine from the EU because prisons are overcrowded, only small crime inmates will be released (so no murderers for example).
-regarding code of laws changes - there was a National Law Court request that a law must be clarified as the law said that anyone guilty of corruption should be prosecuted but that would mean even someone guilty of taking 1 leu (less than 0.25 euro) could be prosecuted, which would waste time.

Of course, the problem with the amnesty releasing inmates proposition was as follows: people actually suggested to... hey, what a crazy request... build new prisons or use existing unused buildings and refurbish them to become prison facilities. Of course, the Government always came with crazy excuses, even when offered a space that was specifically built to be a prison, only lacking doors and personnel they refused saying that it was built by the military and it's too close to a military base.
The problem with the Code of Law change was that they didn't put the stepping stone at which one is charged with corruption at something like... 1 salary or even 1000 euros. No, they put that stage at 200.000 lei (roughly 45.000 euros). That stage was, conveniently enough, just above how much the leader of the PSD (ruling party) was accused of having stolen from the state. Oh, what a coincidence

Anyway, our president, Klaus Johannis, went to the Government and said that these changes would need to be discussed with the civil society and taken through the Parliament. So Sorin Grindeanu, our prime minister said sure, that will be done.
A few days later the Government had a meeting and on the extra points to discuss was the change to the Code of Law. So they added a new thing that law makers can't be charged for making laws that favor criminals. And then they approved the change by Urgency Ordonance, meaning they overwrite the people and the Parliament! They lied to us in the face and approved the ordonance. And then the protests started.
The biggest protests since communism fell. And during much of the protest times, Government members had disappeared into thin air while PSD leaders were saying how the Government makes the rules and those protesting are a bunch of hooligans despite the protests being peaceful (except for one single day when a few people became violent)

And no, the largest people didn't have just those 250.000 people protesting. The largest protest had 250.000 people protesting solely in front of the Government building, and another 200.000-250.000 protesting across the nation. Almost half a million of people protesting across the nation against this ordonance. Eventually the Government realized that the whole arrogance and shit isn't cutting it so they made another ordonance to repeal the first.

And you know what, Kovesi isn't perfect, she's most likely also corrupt. But to claim she's like some beast attempting control over the nation is dumb. That's bullshit. The cause of the Government also isn't right. To release inmates because you can't bother to build a prison or refurbish existing buildings? Come on... And the up yo 200.000 lei stage for stealing not being prosecuted? and the lawmakers not having to worry about their laws favouring criminals? If this is a right cause, I wonder what means to be in the wrong...


"Right now, it’s a standoff between Kovesi and the government, as neither gives up the fight and both wait for the other's move."
Partially true. Yes, the political level standoff is between these... mostly, as Kovesi isn't alone, the president is on her side in this conflict and several non-profit organization.
And there's a third part, the people. The people don't give a shit who wins as long as corruption is removed and living standards improve.


To TL;DR: Most powerful parties in Romania are corrupt. The OP claims just one side is corrupt while the other just had some ancient problems that had been resolved. That is bullshit. The rulling party now is one of the most corrupt and arrogant we've had and has as an ally a party formed by a former prime-minister who tried to control the nation, just as Traian Basescu did.
The people protested against the ruling party because the rulling party showed how little they cared of them with arrogance bigger than ever before by trying to allow state employees to steal up to 45.000 euros and lawmakers to not be prosecuted for making laws that favored criminals.
But their protest isn't aimed solely at the ruling party, it is also aimed at all corrupt politicians (and not only politicians) since the ruling party isn't the only corrupt party here. Most of those in power are, but they just shake hands and call it a day.

- - - Updated - - -

Well you, much like the rest of the "Stormcloaks", don't really understand the notion of Democracy. You see, Democracy is like this: a bunch of people go up to these voting booths and choose who they want to lead them for the next 4 or 5 years.

So you see, despite of your opinions of who won the election and what kind of government that is, you must respect the vote of majority. Protesting in the street because you don't like who won the elections, is pretty dumb.

In a democracy you must accept that people might not agree with what those elected by the majority want. Not the majority itself, but those elected by them. People have a right to protest, both for an idea, and against it. That's democracy.
Also, Hitler also got elected. Do you think it's good that he was allowed to choose how to lead the people and that it's great people didn't protest against him? Yeah, low blow from me, but you kind of paved the way to fall into that trap.
Just because someone is elected, it doesn't mean they're dictators for 4-5 years.

But then that's understandable, after all Romania has only become a democracy 27 years ago, so it's to be expected that some people still have issues with how it works. I mean we still have people who regret Ceausescu because they're completely lost without a big daddy to tell them what to do and to control the media so they're shielded from the bad things happening in the country.

Indeed! There are people who do regret Ceausescu. Guess who they vote for? PSD. That's the ruling party that supports the Government.

And "puppet government"?! A government can only be a puppet when it's heavily influenced by foreign forces or indigenous forces through illegal means. Just because Grindeanu listens to what Dragnea (his fucking BOSS in the party) tells him, doesn't mean he's a puppet, at least not legally, in fact it's pretty fucking NORMAL, as the prime minister is not an apolitical entity like the president, so it's normal to take orders from his leader in the party. Or did you mean he's a puppet of someone else?!

When you're prime minister, your primary boss is the people. if Grindeanu listens to what Dragnea tells him over the people... then that's called corruption.
You know, just how the prime minister of South Korea was listening to that person outside the Government and people protested and she was prosecuted!

In order for Romania to have a chance, the only way is to round up all the major players in the various political parties ( but most of all SDP ) and either exile them or throw them in a volcano or just shoot them , it doesn't matter. The only way out is to start fresh.Personally I don't live in Romania any more and don't plan to return either but as a relatively impartial party that is my assessment of the situation.

I personally think education might play a good role. There are many educated people that did not live in the old regime coming of age and they can't accept corruption anymore. There are also those returning from other, more evolved countries that want to make a good change.

What I fear however is that corruption and its habits are transmitted by the older generation into the newer one. I mean, Elena Udrea is a perfect example, she's not old... yet she's corrupt to the core. That PSD senator lady who was making selfies with the USR protesters when she herself was accused of laundring money is another example. Arrogant and corrupt, yet young. I gave one example from each side, as some might call it, specifically to show that neither side is immune to corruption.