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H av e We R e a l l y Lo s t i n R om a n i a ?
The first center-right government in 1997 wanted to continue the process of restructur-
ing the mining regions. It offered generous financial incentives for miners to leave their
jobs. As no alternative jobs could be found in the region, authorities hoped that ex-min-
ers would leave the area and relocate in rural sites or set up businesses with the money
they received as lay-off incentives. None of these had happened as planned. The solution
turned out to be unsustainable. Ex-miners spent all the money, remained unemployed and
became increasingly discontented.
The second attempt to restructure mining enterprises occurred at the end of 1998. This time
unions strongly reacted against the government plan to reduce subsidies and lay off other
miners. They organized a march to Bucharest in January 1999 led by the now famous Miron
Cozma – the same individual who crushed the student protest in Bucharest in 1990 and
forced the government to step down in 1991. The new march terrified public opinion and
the authorities. Police tried to stop the miners in a violent confrontation, but the miners’
army won the first battle, compelling the prime minister to negotiate to have the miners
return home. This was just a short-term truce, buying center-right politicians some time to
arrest Cozma and indict him for undermining public authority. Discovering this, the miners
started another march to Bucharest, but this time the protest was violently suppressed by the
police, and Cozma was arrested and sentenced to eighteen years in prison.
That was the moment at which the strong union of miners from Valea Jiului was actually
dismantled for good.
4
From that moment on, the reform process has continued peace-
fully, as sustainable solutions were sought for laid-off miners. This was beneficial to the
PSD government which was back in power in 2001 and continued to take the necessary
measures of cutting off subsidies for mining regions and providing alternatives for the re-
dundant workforce. The ex-Communists would never have tried to suppress the potential
violence (sometimes of a paramilitary nature) of the miners’ union, but the center-right
government was determined to prevent the union from undermining any reform attempt.
As a consequence, it was not only the mining sector that underwent restructuring, but
also other state-owned industries, as well. Another bitter lesson that authorities learned
was that police forces were not determined to confront the miners and that the political
opposition wanted to gain electoral capital from miners’ discontent.
V. Taming Bureaucracy with
Stick and Carrot
The episode of high-ranking police officers retreating in the face of the enraged army of
miners was not unique during the center right’s rule, as the minister of interior at the
time felt that the situation exceeded his control and competence. He was soon replaced,
and the police forces succeeded in restoring law and order. The clash between politicians
and technocrats (bureaucrats) was harsh and not without consequences for the reform
4
Opinion polls conducted during this period showed that people fromBucharest were horrified by the possibility
of miners coming to the capital (73% thought miners should be stopped in their march to Bucharest), but most
people all around the country were rather sympathetic to the miners’ protest.
