A little background info on number of the 1st picture: According to the comments of the Serbian Pic I stole:
-The initial numbers of participants were extremely underrereported (100 K) by Reuters.
-The whole city seemed packed according to witnesses. so all the streets and parks were full with people ( as seen on drone images), he reckoned to add the cities population of 1.5 M to the tally.
-Others said that the other ( smaller) cities & towns seemed empty.
he reckoned to add the cities population of 1.5 M to the tally.
That would mean 90% of Belgrade was in the streets that day. As intense the popular support of the protests is, that number is surely a strech. 800k is already quite mind-boggling by the standards of the country... actually, by the standards of any country.
Edit: "The number of protesters present in Belgrade at the protest is disputed: the official government figure provided by MUP was 107,000, an analysis by the Archive of Public Meetings found there were between 275,000 and 325,000 present "with the possibility that the number was even higher,"[499] and Božo Prelević [sr], the former MUP minister, estimated there were at least half a million protesters.[500]" (Wikipedia)
The Reuters number was simply taken from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP), which obviously preferred to keep the number low.
The link for the protest in Romania is about a small but violent protest that happened earlier this week. This article is about the protest today which was a pro-European one.
The Hungarian and Serbian protests are pretty clear cut. Former was a rally on a national holiday by the opposition lead, while the Serbs finally have a clear and open reason to demand blood. The Italian one feels like it's almost a direct answer to the Trump-Zelensky mis-hap (or maybe I just saw the call to protest pop up around then).
What's happening in Romania though? What I got from the article is that there was no proven link to the Russians. That seems like a tough nut to crack. The nationalists are in the streets protesting for democracy? Are there many?
Yeah, good point, it is confusing. The link I posted earlier, was a prior protest. Today, was anotherprotest though, which was Pro-European and anti- extremism
The main thing I've heard online is that it's a pro-europe movement, particularly in support or rearming the EU, particularly in response to current US actions.
I was speaking to an Italian guy at the pub on the weekend and he said that's totally wrong and it's just protesting general government corruption. I don't know if he's more credible than the internet, being Italian is a big plus but being a man at the pub means it's likely wrong. Maybe there are protests for both.
Was at the one in Bucharest. Was a little disappointing tbh. Was just a photo op with extra steps. Organizers maneuvered the crowd into the formation they wanted for the photo, took the photo, then wished everyone a good night and wandered off.
That is such a lot of people, such a lot of people sufficiently motivated to spend their day protesting. What I struggle to get my head around is what they achieve. I admire them being vocal and taking action at potential risk to themselves but what I take away is that you could have a million people at a protest and it still wouldn’t magically make a government or a president stand down. Does a protest need to be part of a larger strategy to cause paralysis to the state, to cause economic pain or to orchestrate violence. Simply getting mega amounts of people to turn out seems like a massive achievement but it isn’t actually working..