Upset about his expulsion, he showed up and joined the Monday protest at the French Embassy, where people wearing banners and T-shirts printed with Rroma slogans, with flowers, brought a rubbish bin and French products to throw away "under the scrutiny of the public eye".
Many T-shirts carried the words "rom pakivalo". What does that mean? Each protester with his own answer. "Fingerprinted Romanians", says a first man from the crowd. Another corrects him: "Respectable Rroma man", he explains. But the explanation did not last long, as another answer eventually came up: "Discriminated Rroma people".
Protesters said they came to the French Embassy to protest measures taken by the French government, to protest the Romanian government's lack of interest in finding a solution to their problems and in identifying long-term programs to integrate Rroma people socially and economically in Romania and in Europe.
Protest at the French Embassy:
That was the explanation given by one organizer of the protest, Marian Daragiu of the Civic Alliance of Rroma people in Romania. But the explanation of a man from the crowd provided a different picture.
Liviu Caldarariu is a young man who was "expelled in an unfair manner" from a country where he had "an OK situation, an apartment, the right to work" and, above all, a French girlfriend he loved. "Oh well, she didn't have the papers either, she was Algerian". After eight years in France, a period of "socializing", working and planning a future, everything in Caldarariu's mind was broken apart by "Mister Sarko". "For me, France is my country, my mother and my father who raised me (...) It's a shock, I can't understand", he said.
He said he now only talks with his love on messenger "because mobile is expensive in France". But he is worried their love might have come to an and end.
