Botosani county businessman Dumitru Balan announced that all of his businesses, including a public transport company, will observe the symbolic strike on March 15 and said that the lack of road infrastructure condemned the county to a lack of development for the past three decades.
Oradea businessman Daniel Costas, who owns a distribution company for truck spare parts also told MEDIAFAX that he will take part in the protest, despite expressing skepticism that the issue will be solved in the near future.
The two joined the protest after they were publicly challenged to do so by Viorel Catarama, who owns the ELVILA group, in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Stefan Mandachi’s protest rapidly popularized following a Youtube video in which he announced that he symbolically one meter of highway constructed in Suceava and urged known businessmen such as Catarama, Ion Tiriac and George Becali to join in the 15-minute protest.
The Romanian Parliament officially passed in late 2018 a bill regarding the construction of a highway between Targu Mures and Ungheni via Iasi, dubbed the „Union Highway”, which would be the first to link the historical region of Moldova with the rest of the country. However, little to no progress on the matter has been registered since.