Bucharest city hall on Monday banned a planned protest by far-right parties citing an “anti immigrant” sentiment which “incite(s) hatred and discrimination” in the European city.
The protest planned for Sept 2 was organized by the New Right Association and the SOS Romania Party, but the city hall said they moved to halt it as the original scope of the demonstration had changed.
“Initially, the documentation submitted by the organizers indicated a topic related to the debate on the Migrant Inclusion Strategy. Subsequently, the organizers promoted explicit anti-immigrant messages in the public space, which incite hatred and discrimination,” a press release said.
The city hall said the public protest would violate laws which prohibit public gatherings which promote “extremist, fascist, racist ideas or ideas that instigate hatred and violence.”
“I will not allow Bucharest to be used as a stage for hatred and division. The right to protest is guaranteed and will be respected every time, but no one is allowed to trample on the law and poison society with extremist messages. The capital is a European city, open and supportive – and this must be firmly defended,” interim general mayor Stelian Bujduveanu, was quoted as saying in the release.
The planned rally came a week after a young Romanian man filmed himself punching a Bangladeshi food delivery worker telling him “Go back to your country! You’re an invader!”
The man was promptly arrested by a nearby off-duty police officer and detained.
In a separate incident, a migrant worker was severely beaten in the Transylvanian city of Cluj and is in a coma. A man has been detained for 30 days.
The attack came after Dan Tanasă, the vice-president of the far-right AUR party urged the public to refuse takeaways and other courier services from foreigners, especially if they are from Asia or Africa.
“Refuse the order if it is not delivered by a Romanian. Stop encouraging the import of workers… unskilled workers in Asia and Africa. Wake up!!,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Romania has a labor shortage after five million people moved abroad in recent years, most for better job opportunities and Romanian employers have recruited workers from outside the Eu for jobs in hospitality and construction..
Tapping into that sentiment, protest organizers had called on people to participate in the rally “to show we Bucharesters are against the city hall’s intention to flood our beloved city, one of the safety and quietest cities in Europe with Afro-Asian immigrants.”
“Attention, dear Bucharest residents, it is no longer about delivery people from Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, who anyway, are…illegally in Romania, but about bringing to Bucharest, against the will or without the consent of the population, immigrants with uncertain status (who come from) from non-European (nations), exclusively (from the) non-white race.”
Uproar in Romania after man filmed himself punching Nepalese delivery worker in the street
