Despite this outcome, although reduced in amplitude, the Golaniad protests continued in Bucharest's University Square, and gave ongoing support to the Proclamation. In his previous polemic with the demonstrators, Iliescu argued that the Proclamation was likely to cause "a dangerous witch-hunt". Leaders of the protest rejected this view, indicating that the Proclamation did not call for punishment, but rather for accurate representation. After the controversial intervention of Romanian Police forces, and retaliation from the protesters, the newly-elected president made a public appeal which resulted in a violent intervention by groups of miners arriving from the Jiu Valley.