Liberty plus justice, please CHANGING prime ministers in Romania is nothing special. Changing them on grounds of corruption or incompetence is unprecedented. Changing the whole dysfunctional political system is still a daunting and distant prospect. But since the resignation of Victor Ponta’s government last week, Romanians are beginning to feel a breath of optimism, after 25 years of fitful progress in building institutions and entrenching the rule of law.
The immediate cause is a tragedy—a fire followed by a stampede at Colectiv, a Bucharest nightclub, at the end of October, which killed 48 people and left dozens with horrific burns. The disaster epitomised many of the features that have held the country back: irresponsibility (the use of fireworks in a basement with polystyrene soundproofing); incompetence (the club was ill-run and the emergency services ill-prepared); and apparent corruption (the building seems not to have been properly inspected or licensed).
In the aftermath of the fire, Romanians took to the streets in some of the biggest protests since the collapse of communism. Under the slogan…
