About 1,000 people converged on Victory Square and University Square, expressing frustration with an earlier curfew and shop closures that took effect at the end of March. Many demonstrators waved tri-color Romanian flags and chanted "Freedom!" and "Down with the government!"
"We came to fight against this state of alert that buries all our rights and freedoms," Dumitru Balan, leader of the civic movement Action for the Nation, told The Associated Press.
"We do not agree with compulsory vaccination, with wearing a mask on our faces ... the quarantine of cities, online schooling, the closure of churches, playgrounds, restaurants and shops," he said.
Romania does not have compulsory vaccinations.
Comment: Few countries are making them obligatory, but many countries have made it quite clear they are planning on making life very difficult for those who choose not to take the experimental coronavirus vaccines: Obligatory vaccines 'necessary in democratic society', European Court of Human Rights rules
The protest was held on the same day that Romania passed the milestone of having 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases. Hospital intensive care units are struggling to cope with the record demand of just under 1,500 COVID-19 patients and 12,000 others are in other wards.
"There are now very severe patients admitted in our clinical ward that normally would require intensive care ... we don't have enough ICU beds available and patients are waiting with sub-optimal care," Dragos Zaharia, a pneumologist at Marius Nasta Institute, told the AP. "We are at risk of being accused of malpractice."
Comment: Romanian hospitals are likely 'overwhelmed' every year, and likely due to a lack of funds and mismanagement, as is the case in the UK, France, and numerous other countries throughout Europe: NHS director admits coronavirus data inaccurate as patients are in hospital for OTHER issues
The protesters halted outside Cotroceni Palace, where President Klaus Iohannis resides, and called for an early election.
"I think Romania has a perfect storm of conditions that create this climate of anti-restriction protests," Dani Sandu, a sociologist affiliated with the European University Institute, told the AP. "Romania is a society with low levels of trust in public institutions."
Comment: It's not just Romania: Planet in protest: BLM in Belgium, pro-freedom marchers in the Hague, currency clashes in Lebanon, Argentina's president mobbed, 39 people killed in Myanmar riots
On Friday evening, authorities transferred patients in the middle of the night from Bucharest's Foisor Orthopedic Hospital to other facilities as it was turned into a COVID-19 hospital.
Comment: It's actions like this that are causing normal hospitals to become overwhelmed, meanwhile hospitals dedicated to coronavirus patients are practically empty: UK 500-bed Nightingale Hospital to close without treating a single Covid-19 patient
An official from the governing National Liberal Party, Ben Oni Ardelean, called the situation a "circus" and said he will urge that Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu be fired.
Romania has recorded 25,006 deaths in the pandemic.
Fake numbers for fake science and people swallowing the fear by the buckets.. In order to beat any disease, we must naturally be exposed to it and to each other, otherwise we are inviting death to take a seat in our living rooms and it's one way to hell. I wish more people would realize the common sense of the situation.