Hundreds gathered in the Romanian capital and another town on Sunday to protest against mandatory Covid passes.
Demonstrators marched through Bucharest, stopping at the health ministry and the education ministry to make their demands known.
„Freedom without a certificate,” they yelled. “We don’t want ‘passports’, we have immunity.”
Authorities imposed tighter restrictions late last month after the daily death toll climbed to hundreds per day, the highest in Europe.
Vaccination certificates are now required for many day-to-day activities, such as going to the gym, the cinema or a shopping mall. There is a 10 p.m. curfew for everyone.
Daily cases have receded but deaths are still in their hundreds.
Sunday’s protests came a day ahead of a parliamentary debate on whether to make green passes mandatory at work.
George Simion, the leader of the nationalist AUR party was at the protest. He urged people to put pressure on lawmakers to vote against making passes compulsory.
Separately, hundreds protested in the northern city of Suceava against the green pass and Covid restrictions. They called for schools to remain open.
Protesters shouted “We want freedom, not certificates” and “We Romanians are the masters,” a line from a nationalist song.
“We won’t give in, we won’t get vaccinated,” they shouted and “Stop the green pass.”
In an unrelated development, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik Romania, Dragoș Dumitriu, died on Saturday after contracting Covid-19 a month ago. The 57-year-old died on Saturday after suffering a heart attack, Jurnalul de Arges reported.
Sputnik is a Russian state-owned news agency. Sputnik Romania is anti-vaccine and anti-mask.
Romania is one of the least vaccinated countries in the EU after Bulgaria which takes the first spot as the least inoculated EU member state.
