The Mobilization of Memory during the 2017 Protests in Romania and the Rise of New Political Actors

This article analyzes the duality of social movement actors’ embeddedness in specific memory cultures and their mnemonic work in reinforcing these cultures. We examine the role of memory during the Romanian mass protests of 2017, which arose in response to legal reforms perceived as undermining anti-corruption efforts. The protests were influenced by narratives of failed transition and personal and structural continuities regarding the communist past. We analyze how the memory and postmemory of communism were actively mobilized to draw parallels between the current political establishment and the communist past. We contend that this mnemonic framing delegitimized the post-1989 political order by invoking unresolved breaks with the communist past and unfulfilled post-transition promises, thereby fueling demands for democratic renewal and profound systemic change within Romanian society. This anti-establishment framing laid the discursive groundwork for new political parties, such as USR and AUR, that challenged the established ones.