PM calls for unity after 12 days of protests

BUCHAREST (AP):

Romania's prime minister yesterday used a national holiday to call for unity as thousands of protesters angry at the government's failure to reverse falling living standards turned their ire towards state media.

Emil Boc addressed Parliament in a special session on the country's Day of Unity, urging Romanians to work together to overcome economic hardship. The government has been battling to contain 12 days of demonstrations fuelled by frustration pent up since the country's troubled transition to democracy after its 1989 revolution.

In his first public remarks about the protests, President Traian Basescu accused opposition figures and the press of indulging in what he called "the joy of destruction", and of undermining and ignoring his government's achievements.

"They want the resignation of the president, the resignation of the government, the resignation of Parliament, that's to say a Romania that is not governed," he said.

Some 5,000 people jeered the government in the northeast city of Iasi, calling for early elections. Thousands also massed outside the government in the capital Bucharest to rally against harsh austerity measures, and marched to the headquarters of the public television station, which they accused of having a pro-government bias.

"We have had enough of the government," said Teodor Ciodariu, a 58-year-old retired interior ministry officer. "The news they (Romanian public television) broadcast does not reflect reality."

Protesters then marched downtown to University Square, which has been a focal point for protests since the anti-communist uprising against the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.