Romanian flings himself from Parliament balcony

Photo: AP
Published December 23, 2010

| Associated Press

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BUCHAREST, Romania – Romania's Parliament cancelled a no-cofidence vote Thursday after a man flung himself from the chamber's balcony, apparently in protest over the governmen't austerity meassures. He was not seriously injured.

A loud thud reverberated in the chamber after the man, Adrian Sobaru — identified by the country's public television station as one of its engineers — hit the benches shortly after Prime Minister Emil Boc greeted the lawmakers. No one else was injured.

Boc looked startled and rushed over to Sobaru, along with other lawmakers, before Speaker Mircea Geoana cancelled the session.

Romania's government is mired in recession and it recently slashed public sector wages by one-fourth. Sales tax was hiked from 19 to 24 percent, measures adopted by the government to keep the budget deficit at 6.8 percent in 2010. Its economy is expected to decline by 2 percent this year, after it contracted by 7.1 percent in 2009.

Photos show Sobaru standing on a balcony about 7 meters (23 feet) above where lawmakers were sitting, before he jumped. More than half a dozen lawmakers watched him fall. The images show Sobaru wearing a white T-shirt, with the words "You've pierced us. You've killed our children's future. Freedom," in a reference to government policy.

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The first line was a reference to President Traian Basescu, who upon winning the presidential race in 2009 said "I've pierced them," using a well-known line from a Romanian movie.

As emergency medical workers took him out on a stretcher, Sobaru shouted "Freedom!" echoing cries of the 1989 revolution that brought down the Communism when more than 1,300 people died.

Romanians are commemorating the 21st anniversary of the uprising in which authorities shot unarmed protesters. Many Romanians are angered by government cuts.

Sobaru sustained face wounds, and other non life-threatening injuries, said Catalin Carstoiu, manager at the University Hospital. He will undergo surgery and psychological counseling, Carstoiu said.

The planned no-confidence vote was over a public wage law, but the incident forced the lawmakers to cancel the vote.

Boc called the incident "a tragedy that shocked me," and appealed for calm "in these tough times."

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