Viorel Anastasoaie, a demonstrator aged in his thirties, said the rally was “a gesture of solidarity” with the victims of the blaze “and a sign of protest against the government, against the district mayor, against the system which enabled a tragedy of this kind to happen”.
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Ponta said on Wednesday that he will resign after widespread discontent over corruption in the country was intensified by last week’s deadly nightclub blaze in Bucharest.
The fire broke out on Friday night at a rock concert in the club, Colectiv, when fireworks used indoors lit non-fireproofed insulation foam, triggering a stampede towards the single exit and trapping numerous roughly 400-strong audience inside.
Mr Ponta became Romania’s third prime minister in less than six months when his left-leaning Social Liberal Union (USL) alliance took charge in May 2012 after toppling its predecessor in a confidence vote. “It is a lesson for all politicians”, he said.
A few 20,000 people took to the streets of Bucharest on Tuesday evening in a spontaneous protest.
“I assume the moral blame. As for the legal [blame], I will leave it to justice to pronounce”, Piedone said. “It would have been a big mistake to ignore it”, Ponta said.
Announcing his resignation on Wednesday, Prime Minister told Romanian TV: “I hope the government’s resignation will satisfy the people who came out in the streets”.
The news comes after days of protests over Friday night’s deadly nightclub fire, which claimed the lives of 32 people. While a caretaker government led by a technocrat can’t be ruled out, the ruling party will probably find a replacement for Ponta until elections at the end of 2016, according to Andrei Taranu, deputy dean of Bucharest’s Political Science University.
Angry crowds shouted “Shame on you!” and “Assassins!” and waved Romanian flags.
“Corruption kills”, “Ponta resigns” or “Murderers”, were the messages. At the time, Ponta was a lawmaker.
“The popular wave of anger comes against a background of dissatisfaction with these figures of government”, said Paul Ivan, senior policy analyst at the European Policy Centre.
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Romanians had also called for the resignation of Oprea over the on-duty death of a police motorcyclist, who died after he hit a hole on October 20. Thousands of protesters marched through central Bucharest Tuesday, alleging several senior officials allowed themselves to be bribed in exchange for permits to put on shows in crowded and unsafe clubs.
