Highway Protest Initiator Says Action Was a "Big Success"

The entrepreneur said he will continue such actions until a highway towards Suceava will be constructed, adding that he assumed any further consequences of the act.

“It was a great success (…) We have generated enormous national solidarity between Romanians”, the businessman said.

He added that he did not wish for the protest to gain political connotations.

A protest initially demanding highways for the Moldova region was observed throughout Romania on Friday, as thousands of individuals and also institutions, companies and unions rallied to the movement to attract attention on lacking highway infrastructure and other issues in the country.

The focal point of the protest took place in Suceava county, where Mandachi, inaugurated a symbolic meter of highway built with his own funds. He called at the beginning of March for other businessmen and institutions to suspend their work for 15 minutes at 15.00 local time on March 15, to attract attention on the lack of highway infrastructure in the region.

The movement rapidly gained popularity under the name #sieu, with events organized in Moldova’s largest city, Iasi, the country’s capital, Bucharest, and major cities such as Cluj, Timisoara and Ploiesti, among others, but also spontaneously on Romania’s existing highways.

Dozens of firms and associations throughout the country also observed the protest, either by interrupting their activity for the 15 minutes or by their employees wearing symbolic armbands to work.

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