Living statue of PM Citu unveiled in Victoriei Square during Greenpeace protest

A living statue dressed in golden clothes and depicting Prime Minister Florin Citu was unveiled in Bucharest on Wednesday in Victoriei Square as part of a protest action staged by Greenpeace Romania amidst Romania's governmental coalition discussing how to manage placing the Rosia Montana site on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

After the unveiling of the statue, the public was urged to stick notes to it related to Rosia Montana. Also, the protesters were urged to give the statue chocolate coins, as the statue would react if it received enough gold coins.

"This is the first time a statue has been unveiled in Victoriei Square since 1948. Here, under our feet, was the statue of King Ferdinand surrounded by four victories. Unfortunately, we at Greenpeace, we did not have money for five statues, so we only have one. It just so happens that today the ruling coalition is discussing the Rosia Montana UNESCO file. (...) As we know that politicians like tributes very much, we have come to bring our offerings to this government and, who knows, to influence at least to a small extent the way in which discussions are taking place at this super important moment for the battle that has taken place for some time so that the site of Rosia Montana, of universal value, may be recognised as world heritage," said Greenpeace Romania activist Cristian Neagoe.

He underlined the historical value of Rosia Montana, pointing out that it is the oldest recorded settlement in Romania, a place where Roman wax tablets have also been discovered.

"For over 20 years, the community of Rosia Montana has been captive to quarrying that does not start. It is an exploitation that would involve the erasure of the Apuseni Mountains, the erasure of a historical site of universal value and its replacement with a cyanide lake. Rosia Montana is the place where people traditionally mined gold for three millennia, from the Bronze Age to the 2000s, where we have seven kilometers of perfectly preserved Roman galleries, the best preserved Roman galleries in the world; and to the extent that Western civilisation means anything to society, then Rosia Montana is the place where the Roman way of mining gold is best preserved," he added.

According to the Greenpeace Romania representative, the hesitations of the Citu government "who is now wavering whether or not to drop the Rosia Montana file" only "fuel" the court case that Gabriel Resources filed against Romania in Washington.

"We are talking about 4.4 billion euros that could be lost under the same pretext that the Dancila government used in 2018 for the suspension of the same UNESCO file, namely that getting Rosia Montana on the world heritage list could mean Romania losing the trial. That is a false argument, (...) even a lie, because Rosia Montana is a historical site, protected by Romanian law since 1992, and UNESCO comes with extra legal protection, money for restoration, placing Rosia Montana on all the tourist maps of the world, which could mean the development of this settlement which, for 20 years, has had a general urban plan that does not even allow the opening of a guesthouse. It is a mono-industrial area that is preserved as thus, although 30 governments have so far tried to offer this private company a special law to start mining gold at Rosie Montana and to destroy (...) the history, culture, community and the environment at Rosia Montana," he said.

Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Monday that solutions are being sought in the governing coalition in the Rosia Montana case, namely for the site to be included in the UNESCO world heritage list and for the answer to the question of whether or not mining can take place there.

"These are exactly the discussions in the coalition; let's see what the solution is to move forward. To keep the UNESCO site and, if possible, exploit it as well. We are looking for a solution. That's why we have called in the specialists. People come to the coalition who tell us what solutions there are. On the one hand, we have the opinion from the law firm, on the other hand, we have the Ministry of Culture," said Citu.