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Romania protests continue despite repeal of corruption decree

An estimated half a million Romanians have continued to protest against the government, with many calling on it to quit even after it scrapped the corruption legislation that sparked a week of public outrage.

The prime minister, Sorin Grindeanu, has stood firm, saying his government, which has been in office for barely a month, “has a responsibility to the people who voted for us” and would not resign.

The last six nights of large, noisy protests in cities and towns around the country have been the biggest outpouring of public anger since the toppling of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in 1989.

The object of public anger was an emergency decree passed on Tuesday night that critics at home and abroad feared marked an alarming retreat in the battle against corruption, long the scourge of the EU’s second-poorest country.

On Sunday, Grindeanu’s cabinet repealed the decree, but this failed to assuage protesters, many of them taking to the streets that night chanting “Resign! Resign!” as they waved flags, brandished signs and blew whistles and plastic horns in the national colours.

“They are corrupt. We want justice ... the government will still try something [with the decree],” said Emma, 24, one of between 200,000 and 300,000 people estimated to have gathered at Victory Square in central Bucharest.

“They are liars and bad people,” said her friend Nicole, 25. “The government has to fall ... We are going to come back here every night.”

The decree, which had been scheduled to come into force on 10 February, would have made abuse of power a crime punishable by jail only if the sums involved exceeded 200,000 lei (£38,000).

The government still plans, via a separate decree to be reviewed by parliament, to free about 2,500 prisoners serving sentences of less than five years.

Grindeanu’s Social Democrats (PSD) have argued the measures were meant to bring penal law into line with the constitution and reduce overcrowding in prisons. But critics see the moves as a brazen attempt to let off the many PSD officials and parliamentarians who have been caught in a major anti-corruption drive in recent years.

Almost 2,000 people were convicted for abuse of power between 2014 and 2016, and a serving prime minister, five ministers, 16 parliamentarians and five senators were put on trial.

Critics have said one beneficiary would be Liviu Dragnea, the head of the PSD who helped the party win a resounding election victory in December. Dragnea is barred from serving in government because of a conviction for voter fraud and is currently on trial for alleged abuse of power. He denies wrongdoing.

On Sunday, a defiant Dragnea accused unspecified shadowy forces of instigating the demonstrations. “The organisation of these protests and their scale show that this is a political gathering. Who is organising this? Hard to say but I hope that the state institutions have this information,” he said.

“I reproach myself for not having understood that this is a much better organised plan than a simple spontaneous movement,” he told the channel Romania TV.

Laura Fatu, a demonstrator, said people simply wanted an end to corruption. “Our money, our forests ... and future are being stolen. We have had enough,” she told AFP.

“It is obvious that society is becoming unified. We are together ... People are coming from other cities to Bucharest in order to change things,” said Matei, another protester. “We are ready to make Romania a clean country, for our children and for our future.”

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