Bucharest Rioted for Healthcare

I arrived at University Square, in the middle of Bucharest, at about 10 PM Sunday night. Almost 2,000 people were protesting against President Traian Basescu, who tried to reform the national emergency healthcare system, the only part of Romanian healthcare that actually works. As with most protests, the attendees could be neatly divided into two camps: the peaceful and the violent.

On the statues in front of the National Theatre, five-year-olds were chanting “Down with Basescu!” while in the subways 20-year-old hooligans were looking for fights. Angry with politicians but nice with the ladies, the boys asked me to take their pictures and then insisted I give them my instant messenger ID. I told them I was in a hurry to throw bricks and they let me go.

I walked out of the subway right into a crowd of people and smoke. Even though TV news said that the violent protesters were organized, to me the whole thing seemed governed by chaos and panic. The aggressive protesters had taken steel fences from the roadside and were using them to block the road. They were throwing bricks, Molotov cocktails, firecrackers, and were screaming football songs. A thousand gendarmes were holding them off with shields, armored cars, tear gas, and fire hoses. People were running left and right, yet nobody knew where and why. Some were shouting “Symmetry! Hide on the smaller streets!” while others answered “No, don’t go that way! The gendarmes will catch you and beat you there!” I felt the tear gas in my lungs and eyes and I helplessly watched people get bludgeoned over the head with tonfas. I tried to take photos of the people who were wounded, but they avoided me. I guess they probably thought they weren't at their prettiest.

Vlad Petri (the guy who filmed the protests) and photographer George Calin, on the other hand, were taking pictures right from the front line, between the gendarmes and the rocks. They stayed among the protesters for a few hours without any trouble. When violence broke out at Union Square, George was almost beat up by some protesters (of the kind that doesn't appreciate cameras). A reporter right next to him was hit in the head with a brick, but somehow George got away unscathed. If you don’t count the choking and the neck sores he got from the tear gas, that is.

By 1 AM, 33 people were hurt and almost 200 had been arrested. Today, the people of Bucharest are meeting again in the middle of the city for the fifth day of protests.