BUCHAREST, Romania �� Romania's government scrapped a decree that sparked the biggest protests in decades by appearing to undermine the country's fight against corruption.
The month-old Cabinet repealed the changes to criminal legislation that opponents saw as a risk to the crackdown, it said in an emailed statement Sunday. The decision didn't convince all, with a few thousand people gathering in central Bucharest for a sixth consecutive day to urge the Cabinet to resign.
Hundreds of thousands of people protested around Romania Saturday.
"I've listened to my colleagues in the party and in the opposition and I heard the voice of the street and I don't want to split the country in two," Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu said. "I will start a debate shortly with all the parties on ways to change the criminal codes so that they meet the most recent rulings of the Constitutional Court."
The Social Democrats face the largest backlash since the 1989 uprising that ousted dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Romania's third government in two years incurred the wrath of the public and President Klaus Iohannis by easing punishments for officials who abuse their positions and by seeking to free others from prison. The protesters back the anti-graft drive that has ensnared top officials in nation, including a former Social Democrat prime minister.
The government had planned to decriminalize abuse-of-office offenses for sums of less than $48,000, and sent a draft law to Parliament to pardon prisoners serving sentences shorter than five years, excluding rapists and repeat offenders. Grindeanu said that threshold may be dropped in talks with parties.
While the government said the measures were meant to ease prison overcrowding, its actions would have freed hundreds former officials and potentially stopped the investigations of others. They include an investigation into Liviu Dragnea, the party leader who is seeking a retrial after receiving a suspended sentence for electoral fraud. He denies wrongdoing and Thursday blamed the protests on a misinformation campaign and encouragement from the president.
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(Zega reported from Zurich.)
