Romania's prime minister has announced that the government will repeal a contentious decree to decriminalise corruption after the policy sparked the biggest protests in the country since the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.
'Tomorrow Sunday Feb 05,2017 we will hold a government meeting to repeal this decree,' Sorin Grindeanu told a news conference. 'I do not want to divide Romania. It can't be divided in two.'
The decree, passed on Tuesday and due to enter into force on February 10, makes abuse of power a crime only punishable by jail if the sums involved exceed 200,000 lei (£44,200).
The leftwing government, which has been in office barely a month, also wants in a separate decree to free some 2,500 people from prison serving sentences of less than five years.
The new legislation prompted five straight days of protests, with an estimated 300,000 turning out across the country on Wednesday night - with 100,000 in the capital of Bucharest alone.
The demonstrations were the biggest the country has seen since the ousting of Ceausescu and the communist system in 1989.
European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday said he was watching developments with 'great concern', warning that the fight against corruption in Romania 'needs to be advanced, not undone.'
The US State Department also said it was 'deeply concerned' that the new measures 'undermine rule of law and weaken accountability for financial and corruption-related crimes'.
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