250,000 smartphones lit up the night in protest

Romania witnessed one of the largest protests over the past week wherein more than half a million Romanians took to the street to express their discontent against an executive order issued by the government towards the end of January. The proposed coalition essentially decriminalised abuse in office by officials, as reported by Time.

The country’s ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu of the left-wing Social Democratic Party (PSD), argued that the changes were needed as some laws required alignment. However, the mass observed the move as an attempt to allow allies of Grndeanu caught in the country’s anti-corruption efforts to escape condemnation.

The protest has been going on since a week and Romanians are still gathering at Victory Square to seek justice.

The most memorable of these events remains the night of Febuary 5th wherein nearly 250,000 people gathered at Victory Square with their smartphones as a form of symbolic gesture that literally lit up the sky.

Softpedia described Romania as being among the most civilised and “digitised” countries across the globe.

“Digital literacy turned the recent protest into a non-political rally, as people are more interested in having the right laws issued rather than supporting certain political ideologies,” the report read.

Needless to say, the mass protests seemed to have worked positively. After almost six nights of protests across the cities in Romania, the coalition withdrew the controversial executive order on Sunday, 5th Feburary as reported by Time.

However, the protest didn’t end after the order was withdrawn. The protestors wish to send a message to the government to refrain from retreating against the country’s fight against corruption. Some protestors told the New York Times that they wanted to see ministerial resignations or the entire government felled.