Gendarmes Force Romanian Revolutionaries To Unblock Road

About 200 members of the National Revolutionaries’ Bloc (BNR) staged a spontaneous protest in front of the party’s headquarters and blocked Kiseleff Boulevard, one of the main roads in the city, for nearly two hours.

Because the rally was unauthorized, participants will be fined 1,000 lei each (EUR1=RON4.2317) and their leaders will be fined RON10,000, Bucharest Gendarmerie spokesman Marius Militaru said.

He said protesters will be identified using video recordings.

The spontaneous rally started when, during a BNR Congress at the Romanian Peasant’s Museum, one of the participants announced that the social democrats intend to propose Gelu Voican Voiculescu as secretary of state in charge with the issues of revolutionaries.

On Monday, the Bucharest district 1 court sentenced the social democrat state secretary for revolutionaries, Emilian Curtean, to five years prison for misappropriating over RON200,000 from the Government while leading the state secretariat for Revolutionaries’ Issues. Cutean was dismissed by Prime Minister Emil Boc on the same day.

Cutean’s position will be filled by Cristina Ecaterina Corut until a new state secretary for revolutionaries’ issues is appointed.

Minutes after gendarmes forced protesters to clear the road, a delegation of revolutionaries was let into the party headquarters for negotiations.