People in the streets are protesting against the rogue communist government, but this is not all, some others are out to protest against the general corruption (the two are related but not completely the same). So a few artists meet in front of the Peasant Museum in Bucharest with a set of self-made puppets representing the “corrupts” which all of us have to support, walked them on the street and then treated them with a beer.

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The referendum held by the communist coalition led by the prime-minister Victor Ponta and his fellow senator Crin Antonescu, now interim president, failed, they didn’t succeed to get the majority needed to dismiss the democratically elected president Traian Basescu so their coup d’etat failed at least partially. Now people are in the streets calling those too to do the moral thing and resign, even if this is very unlikely, to say the least.

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The coup d’etat in Bucharest evolved to the point the German chancellor, called it unacceptable: the rogue government went beyond the law and suspended a democratically elected president. The street protest continued, but they also chanced, the peaceful protests in Piața Victoriei were took over by a small political party in its hunger for audience, with activists, flags, T-shirts, noise, megaphones and everything. Since that party has its own propaganda machine and I wasn’t there to endorse a party, my coverage will pause. I will probably cover other major events in the meantime, like the big presidential support demonstration and will certainly go and vote in the referendum.

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If in the previous days the pro-democratic and anti-governmental demonstrations at Piața Victoriei were spontaneous and unofficial, yesterday evening Piața Revoluției of Bucharest (the symbolic place where the old communist dictatorship ended) hosted a big official demonstration with thousands of participants. This time it was a political action, with parties, associations, organizations and personalities participating and announcing an alliance intended to stop the coup d’etat and defending democracy. They will lack much power in the following months, but are expected to be a force in the upcoming elections expected this autumn.

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Life was going “normal” I was busy preparing the Wikipedia photography contest, editing photos for an exhibition with my photo group, queuing posts for this blog, planning trips for the summer and so on, when the crude reality hit: a communist government in place in Romania which got into power after some parliamentary play that modified the majority, moved into what can be called a “parliamentary coup d’etat”, which demolished democratic institutions like People’s Advocate or the Parliament leadership and free media like the public television and is targeting now other institutions like the Constitutional Court and the (democratically elected) President, with Justice to follow. The life can’t go on, I have to stop and document how people are trying to protect democracy and freedom, they get out in the streets protesting.

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Every event, no matter how glamourous it is, must have a sordid side, like this moment of real live on Mătăsari street (is happening just in front of the concert stage).

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