Editing Golaniad (section)

==The protests==
[[File:TR-85in1990.jpg|thumb|[[TR-85]] tank in Bucharest in early 1990, during the ''Golaniad''.]]
On 22 April 1990, the Independent Group for Democracy (''Grupul Independent pentru Democrație'')<ref name="Rus75">Rus, p. 75</ref> organised a demonstration in [[Monument to the Heroes of the Air|Aviators' Square]]. After the peaceful demonstration, groups of people marched towards the [[Romanian Television]] (TVR) station, calling for its political independence. The following day, the PNȚ-CD organized an even larger protest (around 2,500–3,000 people), occupying the road in the [[University Square, Bucharest|University Square]], and some protesters decided to sit-in overnight.<ref name="Rus75"/>

The protests drew the ire of the authorities, who, during the night of 23–24 April, began a repression of the protesters. The law enforcement agents beat up the protesters and arrested some of them.<ref name="Rus75"/> The authorities' violence had the exact opposite effect than the one expected, as more people came.<ref name="Rus75"/> Two days later, they were still there, their numbers growing; on the evening of 25 April, their number reached 30,000. The sympathetic press reported even higher numbers, up to 50,000 each evening.<ref>''[[România Liberă]]''. "Nu plecăm acasă". 8 May 1990</ref> A number of protesters began a [[hunger strike]].<ref name="Rus76"/>

[[President of Romania|President]] [[Ion Iliescu]] refused to negotiate with the protesters and called them "golani" ("golan" meaning a [[hooligan]], a scamp, a ruffian, or a good-for-nothing – which later gave the protest its name) or [[Iron Guard|legionnaires]].

The leadership of the National Salvation Front realized that the protests grew too big to be able to repress them with impunity, so it focused on demonizing them in the state-controlled media.<ref name="Rus76">Rus, p. 76</ref> This part of the media called the protesters "delinquents", "hooligans", "parasites", "thieves", "extremists", "fascists", "traitors", etc.<ref name="Rus76"/> This campaign was successful particularly outside Bucharest, where the government-owned media was the only source of information.<ref name="Rus76"/> Public television showed reports of the protests in which they interviewed people marginal to both the protests and the Romanian society, such as [[Romani people in Romania|Roma people]], hawksters, and prowlers.<ref name="Rus77">Rus, p. 77</ref>