February 2 (SeeNews) - Romania's president Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday that the country's ministry of the interior did not handle well a conflict sparked by a few violent protesters at a peaceful anti-graft rally attended by an estimated 150,000 people in Bucharest a day earlier.
"Rather than isolate them where they had gathered, as they knew very well where they had gathered, the riot police let them free to mix with peaceful demonstrations, thus endangering not only the entire demonstration, but endangered the health and even the life of Romanians who had gathered to demonstrate peacefully," Klaus Iohannis said in a televised news conference.
"I found it very serious that the minister of the interior went on television and said that she knew nothing. Well, if you didn't know, it is even more serious. This means she does not lead the ministry but only sits in the ministry," Iohannis added.
Interior minister Carmen Dan said on Thursday that she had been in contact with the domestic intelligence service SRI which had not signalled about anything unusual at the rally.
SRI responded by saying that they had sent information to the interior ministry warning of danger of derailing the peaceful protests in Bucharest.
The interior minister also mentioned the names of journalists and civic activists that promoted the protests in Facebook.
"We faced situations in which the home addresses and telephone numbers of some political leaders or ministers were posted on social networking sites, further exacerbating street pressure and increasing negative emotion! Such personal information is protected by law, yet it became public," the minister said.
An estimated 150,000 people protested in Bucharest only and a total of 150,000 marched through the streets of 69 other cities against the government decree that eases or scraps penalties for corruption offences, according to the interior ministry. Romanians living abroad also expressed their dissatisfaction with the government backtracking on the fight against corruption, holding protests in Paris, London, Brussels,Turin, Oslo, Copenhagen, Dublin and many others, Romanian media reported.
Protests in Piata Victoriei square in Bucharest were peaceful until 21.00 CET, when a group of football fans attacked riot police, forcing them to use teargas. The group, allegedly supporters of Romania's Dinamo football club, discussed their plans to infiltrate protest rallies in public posts on Facebook. As a result of the clashes, three football fans and two gendarmerie officers were taken to hospital, the interior ministry said. Some of the peaceful protesters who were affected by teargas also needed medical care.
Iohannis also said on Thursday that he will challenge the government decree in court.
A day earlier, the Superior Council of Magistracy, CSM, said it challenged in the constitutional court the decree that sparked the biggest protests in Romania since the fall of communism in 1989.
As a result of the protests, the technocrat minister responsible for business environment in the coalition government of left-wing Social Democrat Party (PSD) and centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE), Florin Jianu, resigned on Thursday morning.
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