Bucharest, Aug 10 /Agerpres / - "Diaspora at Home" is the motto under which Romanians living abroad are expected to gather in Piata Victoriei in Bucharest today for a protest rally announced on social media.

Facebook groups have over the past weeks created several public events for August 10 in Bucharest, with Romanians from abroad and other places having voiced intention to attend.

Authorities have taken into account the participation of a large number of people at the Friday rally, for which steps are being taken for a safe conduct of the event.

One day before the demonstration before the Government House, head of the Communications Service of the Romanian Gendarmerie Marius Militaru, urged the protest participants to distance themselves from incitement to violence that occurred in the public space.

In his turn, Spokesman for the Bucharest Gendarmerie Georgian Enache asked the participants not to prevent law enforcement from carrying out their duties in case they intervene to put out violence. He said that the size of the gendarmerie pool for Friday's protest will be gradually resized to account for the actual number of protesters.

Initially, the board in charge with considering applications for public assemblies that includes representatives from the Bucharest Prefecture, the Police General Directorate of the City of Bucharest, the Highway Police Brigade, the local Police, the Gendarmerie, the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), the RATB mass transit corporation, the Bucharest-Ilfov Ambulance Service, the Emergency Situations Inspectorate, as well as representatives of the departments of the Bucharest City Hall with powers in this field received such an application from the Federation of Romanians Abroad to organize a large-scale demonstration in the capital city, expected be attended by a million people.

On July 23, the Bucharest City Hall (PMB) announced that General Mayor Gabriela Firea approved the request of the Federation of Romanians Abroad and specified that the initial area of the event was extended to include the adjacent arteries: Bd. Lascar Catargiu all the way to and including Piata Romana; Bd. Aviatorilor all the way to and including Piata Charles de Gaulle; Bd. Kiseleff all the way to Piata Arcului de Triumf; Bd. Titulescu all the way to the intersection with Strada Dr. Felix Street; Strada Buzesti to the intersection with Strada Dr. Polizu; Calea Victoriei up to the intersection with Bd. Dacia.

On August 7, the City Hall informed that on August 1 it received an e-mail in which the Federation of Romanians Abroad informed that it was abandoning the organisation of the August 10 rally.

Two days before the rally, the board in charge with public assemblies considered two requests for a protest rally in Piata Victoriei. The first notification was made by Baban-Neacsu Alexandru Dan, represented by Cristian Mihail Dide and Tudor Carstoiu, who informed about the organisation of a public assembly on August 10, starting at 19:00hrs, local. In the same notification, PMB is requested to provide "all the necessary conditions for the peaceful conduct of the assembly as well as the safety and security of the participants." However, as stated by the PMB, to the proposal of the board to draw up a protocol, as requested under Law 60/1991 republished, on technical details, Cristian Mihail Dide and Tudor Carstoiu refused to sign any document, and by doing so they were seen as refusing to take responsibility for the event.

"The main message is that we are not organisers and we have not tried to pretend otherwise. We are some of the promoters of the event but we have not tried to be organisers and we certainly will not do that 48 hours before the event. We simply encourage the authorities to provide the best framework for a non-violent, peaceful and civilised manifestation in a democratic country,"said Tudor Carstoiu, PACT representative for Romania,on Wednesday.

The second notification was issued by the Roman-Byzantine School Orthodox that was later withdrawn.

Romanians returning to their home country who have expressed their intention to participate in Friday's demonstration in Bucharest protested in several Western cities on Wednesday evening. Immediately after entering Romania, they flew the Romanian national flag in their cars and displayed anti-government messages. AGERPRES (RO - editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Razvan Pandea)