A year since the Diaspora protest meeting, Bucharest City Hall Okays rally on August 10, 2019

Four days before the anniversary of the Diaspora protest meeting on August 10, 2018 that ended up with violent clashes, Bucharest City Hall has approved a new rally in the city on Saturday, August 10.

Last year, Bucharest City Hall had initially rejected the request filed by the Federation of the Romanians Abroad to stage a meeting in the Capital on August 10, but had eventually approved it three weeks before.

The organiser of the Diaspora protest this year is Tommy Tomescu Joul, representative of the Diaspora Civic Action Group.

Yesterday, the Association of the Romanians in Italy had announced they will not attend the rally, arguing the protest this year represents the start of the electoral campaign for the presidential election.

The representatives of the association, which not attended the rally last year either, said they “refuse to be manipulated by a political party or another”.

Interim Interior Minister Mihai Fifor has told “Marius Tuca Show” on Tuesday that the ministry and the Romanian Gendarmerie are not preventing anyone from protesting, but called on people to protest peacefully.

“Citizens may protest if they want. I ask those who will attend the rally to protest peacefully and by observing the law. We don’t want to see what we saw last year on August 10“, Fifor commented.

However, the ministry has taken a controversial action by naming Sebastian Cucos, the head of the Bucharest Gendarmerie who coordinated the riot police’s intervention against protesters on August 10 last year, back at the helm of the Gendermarie, as first deputy chief of the Romanian Gendarmerie. Cucos will not coordinate though the gendarmes at this year;s rally, as he is on vacation, as sources disclosed.