FNI investors resort to violence

Violence dominated the protest action organised yesterday in Bucharest by FNI investors, who carried knives and aggressed journalists, as well as passers-by. The police detained seven people, either because they were carrying weapons, or because they displayed extreme violence.

Early in the morning, FNI investors reached Piata Victoriei and shortly afterwards they blocked the traffic, taking police forces by surprise, even though their number did not exceed 500.

The first to be arrested was Valentin Moise of Galati, a middle-aged man who took out a knife and, taking advantage of the confusion, hurt a sub-officer and a gendarme. Protestors were brandishing panels with original slogans: “D.T. Remes (PNL)-the shame of Maramures”, “You stole our last penny, God damn you.”

Ovidiu Mazilescu, the protesters’ opinion leader, demanded that the money should be returned to them through an emergency ordinance, from the state budget, and that the trial in course at the Court of Appeals “should not be dallied.”

As a matter of fact, these demands were also sent to governmental advisor Mihai David, who met with a delegation of the investors. FNI depositors were however extremely angry that Premier Mugur Isarescu refused to meet them personally and they called him “a scoundrel.”

According to Executive spokesperson Gabriela Vranceanu-Firea, Isarescu said that “the adoption of such an ordinance is inadmissible” because it would jeopardise Romania’s relationships with international financial bodies.

In the afternoon, two more arrests were made.

FNI investors’ demands then took a somewhat hilarious turn: the organisation of a referendum for amending the Constitution, ousting the president of the country, dissolving the Parliament and the Government.