Can A Movement To End Corruption Fix Romania's Troubled Democracy?

This is an article that tries - and for the most part, succeeds - to explain Romania’s largest and most important demonstrations since the fall of communism - what started them, what did the people want, and what do the protests mean in the larger scheme of things?

First off, we meet Tedy Ursuleanu, a survivor of the Colectiv Club fire, that happened in October 2015. This tragedy is what enraged Romanians beyond words, because it was seen as a preventable thing. It was only the ubiquitous corruption - the club didn’t have authorization to function where it was functioning, the fire inspectors looked away at the club not meeting the necessary conditions in the case of a fire, the underprepared and bribery-driven medical system, etc - that led to the deaths of 27 people on that night in October, and 37 more in hospitals, mostly because of infection. The author then goes on to explain how the political and social scene is changing: protesters and activists joined the newly-formed USR party and became the third largest party in Romania; the country's National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) being adamant in their pursuit of corrupt people, many of whom are politicians in the leading social-democrat party; Romanian media having their first Spotlight moment with investigations into the corrupt medical system; the rise of independent media; the president’s siding with anti-corruption protesters, and the counter-demonstrations that followed.

Out of all the articles that were written about the January 2017 protests, I would recommend this one to people who want to get a picture of what’s been happening in Romania in the past few years. That is because the author gives the much needed background about what led to these manifestations. He identifies the main actors that played a role in the demonstrations and closely reconstructs the changes in people’s feelings about the government.