Four fined 40,000 lei for using Romanian flag to haul garden waste in Bosanci

What happened

Four adults from the commune of Bosanci in Suceava county, aged 36 to 39, were each fined 10,000 lei after using the Romanian national flag to carry plant waste. All four receive social aid, and on 5 November 2026 they were doing community work at the town hall. Between 09:00 and 11:00 they cleared rose bushes in the centre of the village. When the job ended, one of them went without permission into a storeroom at the town hall and took out a worn national flag kept there. The four then used that flag again and again to gather and haul the cuttings, even though town hall staff had supplied wheelbarrows and proper tools.

Police investigation

Photographs showing branches and leaves piled onto the tricolour circulated on social media and drew wide public anger. Officers from Section 2 of the Ipotești Rural Police, part of the Suceava County Police Inspectorate (IPJ Suceava), opened checks on their own initiative after the images surfaced. Those checks established the timing, the place and the people involved, and the outcome was an administrative fine for each person. IPJ Suceava described the conduct in its own statement.

“The persons concerned repeatedly used the flag to carry plant debris, even though staff at the town hall had provided suitable tools.”

The sanctions were applied under Article 20 of Law No. 75/1994 on displaying the Romanian flag, singing the national anthem and using seals bearing the national coat of arms. The police account describes the flag as used in an improper and offensive way.

Fines and the total

Each of the four received a 10,000 lei fine, bringing the combined amount to 40,000 lei. The sanctions were administrative penalties rather than criminal charges, and the police announced them on 9 November 2026. The chart below sets the fine per person against the combined total.

Fine per person10,000

Total fines40,000

Fine per person

10000 lei

Total fines

40000 lei

Data from the article text

The mayor's response

Bosanci's mayor, Neculai Miron, is serving a third term and is a member of AUR, having previously belonged to the PNL. He published a message on social media in which he apologised for the incident and explained how the flag came to be used. According to him, the town hall had replaced its flags in preparation for 1 December, and the old ones had been stored at a textile collection point. One of those flags was reportedly taken from there and used by the people taking part in the clean-up, and the deputy mayor had ordered the replacement. His statement included the following words.

“We deeply regret the incident in which the Romanian flag was used improperly to transport plant debris.”

Open questions

The police account and the mayor's explanation come from different sides of the same episode. The sources describe no further proceedings beyond the four fines. The images that prompted the checks were shared online before the police acted.