Romanian Drivers In Countrywide Protest Against Car Tax

Hundreds of Romanian drivers took to the streets Saturday, displeased with the tripling of the pollution tax for used cars.

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Traffic was halted on one way by Gendarmerie units in Bucharest’s Victoriei Square, because of the more than one hundred drivers protesting against the tripling of the car tax.

Traffic was blocked by protestors around 0920 GMT. After some ten minutes the drivers released traffic but then tried to force the gendarmerie barrier in the area, which led to minor skirmishes.

In these conditions, traffic was halted by law enforcers and the some one hundred protestors remained in the parking lot in front of the Government, changing “The tax is thievery.”

The gendarmerie units tried to convince the protestors to appoint two representatives who would go to the Government for talks, but the people disagreed saying there is nothing to discuss with the government as long as the tax has already been set. The protestors said they would only be willing to talk of government representatives would come to them, in the parking lot.

In the meanwhile, protestors are trying to convince more drivers to join the protest and are complaining that many vehicles coming to the protest were blocked by police officers at the entrance in Bucharest.

The number of protesters grew in the past half hour, with some 20 cars stationed outside the parking lot at press time, on the lane with traffic halted.

In addition, around 1000 GMT traffic was completely halted in both directions between the Government and Nicolae Titulescu Blvd.

The protesters said they are willing to maintain this protest for an entire week if they have to.

The rally was not authorized by Bucharest City Hall, as the request submitted by one person was not submitted within the timeframe stated in the law, city authorities informed Friday.

Protests against the car tax have stemmed countrywide.

Several hundreds of people and over one hundred cars gathered, Saturday morning, in a parking lot in the center of western Romanian city Oradea. After some 40 minutes the protesters started in a convoy towards the Bors customs point, threatening they will lock down the area. The protestors had authorization for a rally in the center of the city, not at the customs point.

In northern Romanian city Bistrita too some 500 drivers are to gather in front of the Bistrita – Nasaud prefecture. The protesters were joined by the Bistrita mayor as well, Ovidiu Cretu.

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