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ABSTRACT
In spite of earlier research that pointed at Romania as being one of the East European countries with a low level of civil activism, in 2013, it witnessed the largest wave of protests in its post-communist history. This article seeks to find out what caused the Romanian Autumn – as these protests have been called – by analysing it in the context of the anti-austerity, anti-capitalist, and/or environmentalist world protests and the political opportunity structure related to the domestic framework. The latter is investigated by taking into consideration: (a) the tensions between the political actors; (b) the political support for the corporative activity against the public will; and (c) the biased campaign conducted by foreign corporations, mainstream media, and political authorities in favour of the exploitation without any prior public debate.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on Contributor
Diana Margarit is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, International Relations and European Studies, Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania. In 2011, she defended her Ph.D. thesis on the conceptual mutations of democracy between the nation-state paradigm and the supranational political level. She wrote (with A. Carpinschi) International Organizations [both the Romanian and English editions], 2011; On the Edges of Democracy. From nation-state to the global sphere [in Romanian], 2013. She also edited (with Alexandru Tofan) the collective works The Bestiary of Power [in Romanian], 2014.
Notes
1. Plans for Europe's Biggest Open-Cast Gold Mine in Romania Are Thrown Out Citation2013.
2. Bran Citation2013.
3. “Mass Protests in Romania Join ‘Balkans-Wide Wave’” Citation2013.
4. Romania Gold Project at Roșia Montană Back on Track Citation2013.
5. The reason for using the secondary sources do not regard a content analysis per se, but instead they reflect the manner in which the news were covered in national and international websites. In this respect, the national online newspapers and websites that I consulted were Cotidianul, Hotnews, Mediafax, Unirea, VoxPublica, Ziare.com, whilst the international ones were Aljazeera, BBC, CNN, Euro News, Global Post, Hürriyet Daily News, Le Monde, New York Times, Spiegel International, The Guardian, and The Oxford Analytica Daily Brief. At the same time, whilst the articles from the international newspapers refer explicitly to the 2013 protests, those published in national online newspapers and websites are either directly related to these events or describe the political and social context in 2012 as relevant for the upsurge in protests the following year.
6. “Peru Anti-Mining Protests Escalate During State of Emergency” Citation2012.
7. Dale-Harris Citation2013.
8. Wong Citation2013.
9. “Protests over Austerity Measures Turn Violent in Romania” Citation2012.
10. “Gold Mine May Bring Down Government” Citation2013.
11. Ilie Citation2013.