Tens of thousands of AUR supporters participated in a protest in the center of the capital on Sunday against the cancellation of the 2024 presidential elections. The Romanian Gendarmerie made a series of recommendations for the smooth running of the rally and asked that they be respected, considering that, on several occasions, the protesters violated the officially announced travel routes.
The march is attended by tens of thousands of people, according to the reports of journalists present at the protest, over 50,000, according to AUR estimates.
“We protest against the coup d’état of December 6 and demand a return to democracy by resuming the elections starting with the second round, and at the same time we protest against the government measures of the last few weeks, thKlause small train ordinance that affects large categories, and against the defiance of the Romanian people. It is not possible to lose the elections and cling to your seat. In a normal Romania, we would consider it a normal step for Mr. Klaus Werner Iohannis to resign this evening. The protests will continue until all the demands of this meeting are met,” said Simion.
However, there were no shortage of incidents – from verbal assaults on journalists, to the identification of people armed with knives in the crowd and the removal from the midst of the protesters of Horațiu Potra, “Călin Georgescu’s mercenary”.
Towards evening, the protest lost its energy, and after a tour of the Cotroceni Palace, where they demanded the resignation of Klaus Iohannis, only a small part of the crowd of demonstrators who marched during the day on the streets of the capital reached Victoriei Square.
Protesters booed the gendarmes, and also President Klaus Iohannis and demanded his resignation: “Get out, you old bastard”, “Down with Iohannis”, “Resignation!”, “Freedom!” “Round two, back!”, “Iohannis, don’t forget: Romania doesn’t want you”, “Thieves!”, “Shame on you!”.
Among protesters there was Douglas Anderson, an American investor who promotes Călin Georgescu and who boasts that he has business relations with a member of the Government of the Russian Federation.
Mercenary Horațiu Potra, a supporter of Călin Georgescu, was jumped by gendarmes at the protest of the extremist AUR party, who legitimized him. So was his son. According to Digi 24 sources, his son was carrying a telescopic baton, which is prohibited at such demonstrations.
Horațiu Potra has been in the media spotlight several times, although he generally keeps a fairly low profile. He was a mercenary in the Foreign Legion and has a security company that sends fighters to Congo. Moreover, Potra was also photographed in the company of the former Russian ambassador to Bucharest, Valeri Kuzmin, and received a criminal conviction for forming a paramilitary group that used melee weapons and firearms in training. Horațiu Potra has a company through which he sent current and former soldiers to Congo, based on security and protection contracts and for military training for the Congolese government forces.
Upon leaving the hearings that lasted 8 hours, Horațiu Potra declared that “the gendarmes were sent specifically, specifically, to come and stop us.” He also said: “It’s a shame that the generals and those who lead them are doing this and don’t have the courage to go and arrest those who carried out the coup and their accomplices.” Horațiu Potra added that “as long as Romania is run by the servants of the globalists, we will not solve anything. Our children will go to war in Ukraine and it will be in vain for us to hold demonstrations and do whatever we want, because no one will pay attention to them.”
Regarding the telescopic baton found by the authorities on his son, Horațiu Potra stated that he “scolded” the boy and that he “didn’t know” he had it on him. “I scolded him and told him that next time don’t go out with batons, you have to go like any honest man, with a flag, you buy a flag, flags are usually sold without a tail, right? I told him you buy a flag and you can’t put a broom handle on it, because it’s a shame. You take a shepherd’s broom or take a shovel handle, a pitchfork handle, put the flag on and like a Romanian peasant go out and demonstrate.”
A man dressed in military gear also caught the attention of gendarmes monitoring the protest in Bucharest on Sunday, who stopped him for a check. He was found to be carrying a pocketknife, tactical glasses, a radio, binoculars and various emblems written in Russian or Ukrainian.
Journalists assaulted again
On Sunday afternoon, at the AUR protest in the capital, supporters of this party provoked and intimidated the Digi24 team. The reporter, while broadcasting live from the event, was booed and threatened. Sunday’s incident comes after on Friday, during Călin Georgescu’s rally at the Palace of Parliament, several of his supporters threw water bottles and pretzels at the Digi24 team that was broadcasting from the scene, and the Antena1 television car was vandalized. George Simion, the leader of the AUR party, said that those who are aggressive must be punished, which is what the gendarmes are doing. The B1TV team also had incidents with the protesters: a journalist’s car was vandalized, and an operator was hit.
The team reporting from the scene was attacked by the crowd of protesters when they tried to film, according to b1tv.ro. A journalist’s car was vandalized and an operator was punched in the ribs and knocked to the ground, according to the cited source. The Capital Police opened an investigation after the aforementioned incidents. The team filming the column of demonstrators was forced to barricade themselves in the car. “Today, the Capital Police was notified ex officio that, during the public demonstration in the Capital, a representative of a television trust was allegedly assaulted. Thus, the police officers from the 20th Police Department were notified ex officio of the commission of the crime of assault or other violence, and specific activities will be carried out, in order to identify the persons involved in the event“, the Capital Police reported on Sunday evening.
Georgescu’s English message on the protests
“The Romanian people, awakened in consciousness, are fighting for the only dignified principle of the entire free world: democratic elections and the resumption of the second round of the presidential elections (a round that was abusively interrupted by the Constitutional Court of Romania). Regardless of whose command the Constitutional Court acted under, they have realized that they cannot change the will of the people and the will of God! Romanians do not allow political justice and corrupt politicians to create an internal precedent, and even more dangerously, an international one, which would make the entire free world return to dictatorship, sooner or later. The resumption of the second round of the presidential elections is the only way for the corrupt to ask for forgiveness from the people and the sacred democracy. The second round of elections was canceled because no candidate from the corrupt and Sorosist-obedient system had any chance of winning the Romanian presidential elections. I believe this terrified the Romanian politicians, prompting them to act recklessly under the influence of oligarchic-globalist powers! What the Constitutional Court did in Romania could be done by any other supreme court in any other country that still considers itself… free! Let’s prove that only democracy and the people can decide the future, not politicians and their obscure interests! Free will is a divine gift, and politicians have no right to play God!,” says his message.
Repeat Repeat Repeat… good strategy!