Mark Mobius: Peaceful protests in Romania - a sign of true democracy

Mark Mobius, the CEO of Franklin Templeton - the administrator of the Romanian Fondul Proprietatea, recently said that if the street demonstrations in Romania are peaceful, "it is a sign of true democracy.” Moreover, “the fact that Romanians can protest peacefully, is also a good sign,” he added. The US Ambassador to Romania, Mark Gitenstein, said that “we believe in people’s God given right to protest peacefully. However, we don’t think that violence is part of the right to free expression.” He added that peaceful protests will keep Romania an attractive place to invest into. Last week, the US asked the Romanian authorities and people to avoid violence, according to Victoria Nuland, the US State Department spokesperson. “What we would say to Romania and Romanians is the same thing that we say to others around the world and what we said to Greece and the Greeks at the time, which is that we support the right of people around the world to protest and express their views peacefully, but we call on both protestors and authorities to refrain from any violence,” Nuland added during a press briefing on January 19. The street demonstrations in Romania started after the resignation of Raed Arafat, Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Health, on the proposed health law. The protests soon turned against Romanian President Traian Basescu, demanding his and the Government’s dismissal and early elections. Meanwhile, Arafat returned to the Health Ministry in the same position. Read more about it here. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com