‎Night Club Fire: Wild protests continue in Bucharest

The fire-out break which razed a night club killing scores of people has triggered wide-spread protests across Bucharest.

Romanian protesters took to the streets for the fourth night in a row, calling for an end to corruption in the country. Thousands of people protested for a fourth straight day in Bucharest’s iconic University Square and other cities across the Balkan country, demanding an end to corruption. Carrying banners reading, “Corruption Kills”, and chanting “wake up Romania”, they demanded resignations and a cleansing of the political class over a deadly fire in a Bucharest nightclub.

Regular parliament elections are scheduled for December 2016. Parallel to countrywide protests, hundreds of people marched in silence in Bucharest towards the Colektiv nightclub, where 32 people died and nearly 200 were injured on October 30 after fireworks used indoors at a concert set non-fireproofed insulation foam ablaze, triggering a
stampede.

Anti-corruption prosecutors said they have opened a criminal investigation against the mayor of the city district where the club was located. He resigned in the wake of the protests.

Read also: Romanian govt resigns after Bucharest nightclub fire

Former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who faces a corruption trial, unexpectedly quit on Wednesday after tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets. But initial consultations with political and civil society leaders to find a new prime minister have so far yielded no candidate.

All groups in the three-party ruling coalition and the centrist opposition that met President Klaus Iohannis stopped
short of suggesting a candidate but expressed readiness for a consensus solution.

The centrist opposition wants an early election. Liviu Dragnea, leader of the ruling Social Democrats (PSD), the country’s biggest party, said several options had been discussed including a technocratic cabinet of experts, a broad-backed national unity government or even a snap election.

Early polls, a first for Romania, would need either voluntary resignations by all deputies or two consecutive votes of no-confidence against two prime minister nominees within 60 days of the first nomination, a difficult requirement to meet.

Credit: Reuters

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