Seventh day of protests in Romania: crowd brings cuffed president, tourism minister dummies

Several thousands Romanians joined the protest downtown Bucharest in the seventh day of street demonstrations in the country. This is the biggest number of protesters so far, mainly fueled by a demonstration organized by opposition union Social Liberal Union. Some of the 7,000 people at the opposition meeting joined those who were already in the Universitate square- some other 1,000 people. Estimations vary on how may people are currently downtown Bucharest, most pointing at over 4,000 people, but traffic on the Magheru boulevard near Universitate square has been blocked.

The so far peaceful protesters occupied the Universitate square and chanted against Romanian president Traian Basescu. Some of the protesters brought two dummies impersonating president Basescu wearing handcuffs and Tourism Minister Elena Udrea wearing a provocative outfit. Watch the protests live through a webcam here. UPDATE 23:00: Protests turned violent in Bucharest after seven football fans threw stones and bottles at the gendarmes. The special forces used tear gas and managed to free up the Universitate Square in Bucharest.