Euronews chooses Bucharest protest picture as Facebook cover photo

News channel Euronews English has chosen a picture from the first big street protest of the year in Bucharest as its cover photo on Facebook, and this has triggered many positive reactions from Romanians. The photo has gathered some 6,300 reactions from Facebook fans and was shared more than 1,100 times so far. “That’s a great picture! I was one of those people,” a Romanian Facebook user commented, while others thanked Euronews for showing the protest to the world and tried to explain to others what happened in Bucharest last Saturday, January 20.

Euronews English also had several live transmissions on Facebook from the protest in Bucharest. Their reporter followed the protesters all day and talked to the some of the people who decided to join the demonstration against the justice laws changes and the ruling party PSD. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Bucharest on Saturday evening to protest against the ruling coalition’s try to change the justice laws. They fear that the new changes may weaken justice independence and undermine the fight against corruption in Romania. Not only people from Bucharest participated in the demonstration, but also groups of protesters from other big cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Constanta, Sibiu, Brasov, and Sighisoara. In fact, a small of group of protesters walked 450 km from Cluj-Napoca to Bucharest for this first big protest of the year. People gathered in Universitatii Square in Bucharest and then marched to the Constitutiei Square, located in front of the Parliament, shouting slogans and carrying banners with messages against the governing Social Democratic Party (PSD) and its leader Liviu Dragnea. They lit up their phones and sang the national anthem and ended the protests around 9:00 PM. At the beginning of last year, massive protests in Bucharest and all over the country managed to block a Government emergency ordinance that aimed at partly decriminalizing abuse of office. However, the ruling coalition continued its plans of changing the justice laws and criminal codes in the Parliament, ignoring calls from the protesters and from Romania’s foreign partners. The first new laws passed the Parliament already, and are now in the hands of president Klaus Iohannis. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com