As it is known, many protests against anti-epidemic measures were organized in several cities in the country last week, which were coordinated by the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR). A crowd of nearly 400 people gathered in the center of Pitești on Monday afternoon to protest against the lockdown rules, the mandatory use of face masks and to demand freedom.
In the first part of the protest the crowd protested against the restrictions and shouted slogans such as „Freedom!” and „Down with the Government!”, however, in the second part the crowd started to chant xenophobic slogans. The crowd also shouted the well-known „Out with the Hungarians from the country!” chant, which is frequently used at football matches. It is inexplicable why the crowd blamed the Hungarians for the current epidemiological situation and took the opportunity to incite to hatred against the Hungarian minority.
Erika Benkő, director of the Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance explained: „It is very worrying that such anti-Hungarian statements were made at the protests organized by a parliamentary party and that there is a search for scapegoats during the epidemic, which is given an ethnic tone due to the fact that anti-Hungarian rhetoric is often present in the discourse of people protesting against anti-epidemic measures.”
