In order to fulfill his plan, the mayor employed the help of Roma loansharks and other criminal elements. Their role was to make empty promises of priority in access to housing or threaten and convince the most vulnerable people of the Roma community (the poorest and the drug abusers) to relocate from Craica to Cuprom, to ‘better conditions’. The main argument they used to persuade them to sign the relocation papers was ‘if you don’t sign and accept to move, your house will still be demolished and you will be left on the streets’.

Confused, misinformed, without any legal representation and without reading or understanding what they were asked to sign (illiteracy), approximatively 70 families ‘voluntarily’ opted to move to Cuprom.

To support the threats of these self-proclaimed leaders, the authorities set up in motion a plan to renumber the dwellings and hand out demolition orders.

With the imminent displacement of 70 families, the confusion and panic spread to the whole community like fire: ‘are they going to take us all?’, ‘the rest of us when it’s supposed to move?’, ‘I have to go now to get a better room’, ‘what it will happen to us after Cuprom?’.

A fake debate was called and organized by the mayor on May 4, 2012. During the so called debate a long list of allegedly Roma wrong-doings were presented as reasons for moving them out from areas like Craica, Pirita, and Ferneziu.

The presented permanent relocation alternatives (never discussed with the community prior to the debate) were simply words in a presentation, nothing clear or actionable. The few Roma claiming to represent the community didn’t ask any questions and they all claimed afterwards that they were threaten and asked not to speak.

Following the fake debate, the Roma self-proclaimed leaders, on May 6 payed a visit to the community and told people that if they accept to move to Cuprom they will later be given individual land plots on which to build their own houses. The others will not receive such plots.

One June 1, the mayor entered Craica for the first time without the help of the Roma lawn-sharks, threaten everyone and personally conducted the first round of demolitions.

At the time I was on the phone with Rodica and Florentina Jigovene and I told them to refuse to be relocated if this is what they want. Facing their opposition, the authorities had to step back and stop the demolitions.

In 2016 their houses still stand, while the mayor of Baia Mare is in prison facing corruption allegations after he was reportedly caught in flagrant after having received 30,000 lei, a sum representing the first installment of the requested bribe.