Tudor Chirilă argues that the protest of shepherds and farmers in Victory Square started from real demands but was politically hijacked and diverted by agitators, AUR supporters, sympathizers of Călin Georgescu, and members of the galleries.
The artist and civic activist compares Tuesday’s incidents to the attempts to compromise the protests against Ordinance 13 in 2017 and the violence of August 10, 2018.
"What happened today in Victory Square was a mix of protests and real demands (shepherds, farmers), misinformation, and political confiscation branded by George Simion," wrote Tudor Chirilă on Facebook.
"A precise professional dissatisfaction," politically confiscated
In his opinion, the real issues of farmers were used to turn the demonstration into a general protest against the authorities.
"A precise professional dissatisfaction was thrown into the 'anti-system' grinder by the sovereignist network around Simion and Georgescu. AUR supporters, Georgists, RoExit, and people from the galleries emerged. Even representatives of the farmers said that the agitators came from outside," Chirilă claims.
The artist refers to statements from participants who distanced themselves from the violent groups and believes that the farmers ended up being associated, against their will, with those who caused the clashes.
"The shepherds' protests were hijacked, and they, the shepherds, farmers, unintentionally fell into the same pot with some hooligans," concludes Tudor Chirilă.
Representatives of animal breeders also stated during the demonstration that the individuals who started the incidents were not among the farmers who came to present their demands.
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- The protest of the shepherds hijacked by the tricolor agitators. The head of the Agricultural Association "Țara Loviștei": It is clear they are not our shepherds!
Parallel with the protests of 2017 and August 10
Chirilă recalls that during the protests organized in 2017, after the adoption of Ordinance 13, there were groups that incited violence and set fire to street furniture. Peaceful protesters managed to distance themselves from these actions, according to the artist.
He also mentions the protest of August 10, 2018, when tens of thousands of people were dispersed with tear gas and water cannons, and he argues that there were diversions aimed at justifying the violent intervention of the gendarmes.
Chirilă notes that the appeal in the August 10 case began on the same day as the new clashes in Victory Square, eight years after the events. Former heads of the Gendarmerie were acquitted in the first instance, and the artist warns that the case is nearing the statute of limitations.
"There were hundreds of thousands of Romanians in Victory Square. Without cobblestones torn out and without boulders thrown at the Government building. And those protests achieved something: the repeal of Ordinance 13," he emphasizes.
Attacks also aimed at Nicușor Dan
Tudor Chirilă strongly criticizes President Nicușor Dan after he condemned the violence in Victory Square. The artist calls him the "supreme scammer" and accuses him of being involved in the fall of the Government and the blocking of judicial reform.
Chirilă also makes an ironic reference to the idea of "healthy nationalism" supported by the head of state, suggesting that it risks legitimizing radical discourses.
The protest escalated into street confrontations
The protest of shepherds and farmers escalated on Tuesday into confrontations between protesters and law enforcement. Several individuals breached the Gendarmerie lines, attempted to reach the Government headquarters, and threw bottles, firecrackers, stones, pieces of pavement, and street furniture at the gendarmes.
Law enforcement used tear gas and water cannons. A Gendarmerie vehicle was destroyed, several individuals required medical care, and 47 participants were removed from the crowd and taken to the station.
During the protest, messages against President Nicușor Dan and Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan were chanted, as well as slogans like "Călin Georgescu for president."
The farmers managed to submit a list of 16 demands to the Government. The main requests include the urgent reopening of sheep exports and stopping the slaughter of animals as part of measures taken to combat disease outbreaks.