Tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets of Bucharest to protest against proposed justice reforms by the ruling Social Democrats (PSD) that opponents say will make it more difficult to prosecute high-level corruption.

There were brief scuffles between protesters and riot police at the January 20 demonstration as the crowd gathered at University Square in the Romanian capital.

The protest came in response to legislation passed in parliament last month that opponents say would weaken the independence of the judiciary, and to fresh proposals to decriminalize some corruption offenses.

A previous PSD-led attempt last year to decriminalize some abuse-of-office crimes triggered the largest protests in Romania since the communist era.

Rankings by Transparency International put Romania among the European Union's most corrupt nations.

The European Commission, foreign diplomats, and thousands of judges have criticized the move by the PSD-led coalition to overhaul the judiciary, saying it will place the court system under political control and weaken the fight against widespread corruption.

That legislation, passed by parliament on December 20, still needs to be signed by President Klaus Iohannis in order to become law. Iohannis, however, has criticized the proposed changes.

Based on reporting by AP, dpa, Reuters, AFP, the Guardian, and The New York Times </s> Some 50,000 Romanians braved the sleet and snow on Saturday to protest against corruption in Bucharest. Brief scuffles broke out between the demonstrators and riot police during the march.

The event kicked off at the city’s landmark University Square, where protesters joined in blowing whistles, waving flags and chanting “Thieves!” and “Resign!” People also held rallies in other Romanian cities, including Cluj, Timisoara, Constanta, Bacau, Sibiu and Iasi.

Protesters are up in arms over new legislation, passed by the left-wing government in December. According to critics, the bill seriously compromises the country’s judicial independence.

Lawmakers are also set to debate a new set of proposals for revising the criminal code, including decriminalizing certain offences and lowering prison sentences, when parliament reconvenes in February.

“I came out today because I have two little boys and they deserve a better life in this European country,” protester Florentina Caval told Reuters. “I honestly don’t think we will manage to overturn the judicial bills, but we need to try,” she added.

Romania’s anti-corruption prosecutors have sent 72 members of parliament for trial since 2006, according to Reuters.

Last year, an attempt by Romania’s ruling Social Democrats (PSD) to decriminalize several corruption offences triggered the country’s largest mass protests since the fall of Communism in 1989. An estimated half a million Romanians, including over 200,000 in the capital rallied in February 2017 calling for justice, AFP reported.

If you like this story, share it with a friend! </s> Hundreds of people have been injured after a massive anti-corruption rally in Bucharest, spearheaded by expats calling on the government to resign, turned violent, forcing riot police to use water cannons and tear gas.What eventually grew into a massive, 60,000-strong rally began at noon, when roughly 200 expats gathered to protest corruption, low wages and attempts by the PSD to weaken the judiciary. Initiated by diaspora associations, Romanians living abroad waved the national tricolor and EU flags and chanted slogans against the government and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), such as 'Down PSD!', 'Thieves!' and 'Resign!' They also held banners reading 'Citizens have the right and duty to defend Romania', and 'No: Corrupt Romania, Corrupt MPs'.Before authorities moved in to curb the unrest, the head of the Romanian Gendarmerie Service, Marius Militaru, urged all women and children to leave, warning that provocateurs might use them "as a shield to protect themselves." Militaru noted that the violent crowd threw bottles and pieces of asphalt at police lines.Law enforcement pushed the crowd from the square to adjacent streets. While most activists went home, a few pockets of rowdy protesters continued to engage the police into the night. </s> Large crowds rallied on Saturday in Bucharest, Romania’s capital city, the latest in ongoing mass demonstrations against revisions to the country’s corruption laws that have gripped the country since last year.

Braving snowy conditions and freezing temperatures, protesters gathered in the city’s University Square before marching to the Parliament. Once outside the building, the crowd, whose numbers were estimated to be in the tens of thousands, sang the national anthem, and people waved their cellphones in the air, creating an impressive display of light, according to the national press agency Agerpres.

Those gathered were protesting against new legislation, passed by Parliament in December and currently waiting to be signed into law, that critics say weakens the country’s judicial system and makes it harder to prosecute high-level corruption crimes.

Other demonstrations were held in smaller cities around the country on Saturday, according to Agerpres, including in Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Sibiu where thousands also rallied.

Those gathered in Bucharest chanted anticorruption slogans, denounced the current government and called for early elections, according to several local reports.

The controversial new legislation still needs to be signed into law by President Klaus Iohannis, who has long been a critic of the amendments. He wrote to the country’s Constitutional Court on Friday, saying one amendment that would allow public officials to own businesses “diminished the standards of integrity” expected from public officials, according to The Associated Press.

Some fear the new legislation, if signed into law, would mark a step backward for the country.

Last year, Romania saw its largest protests in decades after the government moved to decriminalize some corruption offenses, galvanizing the masses to denounce the move. </s> BUCHAREST: More than 450 people were hurt during a huge anti-corruption protest in Bucharest, Romanian police said on Saturday (Aug 11), a day after the rally at which around 30 people were arrested.

Police had used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the protesters as tens of thousands rallied to call on the leftwing government to resign.

Many demonstrators needed treatment after inhaling pepper spray and tear gas, while others suffered blows, hospital sources said.

Around 30 police were also injured, 11 of whom were taken to hospital.

Police rejected criticism from the centre-right opposition that its officers had used excessive force, saying its response to violence by dozens of protesters had been "gradual and proportionate".

Local media said up to 80,000 people had taken to the streets, among them many Romanian expatriates who returned home to show their anger at the graft in one of the EU's most corruption-plagued member states.

About a thousand officers in riot gear intervened to clear the crowds assembled in a central square outside the main government building after some protesters tried to break through the police cordon.

Romania's centre-right President Klaus Iohannis, a critic of the government, said he "strongly condemned the brutal intervention of the police, which was disproportionate to the attitude of most demonstrators" but added that "any form of violence is unacceptable".

Another demonstration is planned for later Saturday in Bucharest.

In a controversial move last month, Romania sacked top anti-graft prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi - considered a symbol of the country's fight against corruption.

With Kovesi at the helm, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office had led a crackdown on corruption among local and national elected officials, earning the enmity of many in Romania's political class and prompting critics to accuse it of abuse of power. </s> Tens of thousands of people rallied against anti-corruption legislation in Romania’s capital Bucharest, braving heavy snow, as well as a large police presence.

The protests were organised on Saturday after the leftist-leaning, ruling Social Democrats (PSD) passed new legislation last month that critics say will make it harder to prosecute crime and high-level corruption.

President Klaus Iohannis, who is a critic of the bills, still needs to sign them into law.

An estimated 50,000 people marched from University Square to the parliament building.

“I came here to live in a free country that is not full of corrupt people,” Puica Marinescu, a protester, told Al Jazeera. “I want these assassins and mafia people who confiscated the revolution to leave the country.”

Another protester, Alexandra, said: “I come here because we want to correct politicians and justice in Romania.”

The protesters briefly scuffled with riot police in Bucharest. There were smaller protests in the cities of Cluj, Timisoara, Constanta, Bacau, Sibiu and Iasi.

The European Union has spoken out and urged Romania to do more to prevent and tackle high-level corruption.

Romania joined the EU in 2007 and is subject to special monitoring of the judiciary and the rule of law.

More than 90 Romanian former ministers, deputies and senators have been indicted by the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption unit since 2006.

But Brussels has been accused of being too soft on the former communist state.

The scale of the protest is nothing new in Romania’s history. Tens of thousands took to the streets in 1989 in a mass uprising, which led to the downfall of the communist leader Nicolae Caeusescu.

Memories of that revolution seem rife nearly 30 years later. “No communists, no criminals, no corrupts,” one of the banners read in English at Saturday’s demonstration.

The protest march followed another eventful week in Romania when Iohannis spoke out after a second failed government saw another prime minister removed.

“After I weighed all the arguments, taking into account the actual situation in parliament, I decided to give the PSD one more chance and to designate the person they proposed, Mrs [Viorica] Dancila,” Klaus said.

Danchila, who is a member of the European Parliament and the first woman to be nominated, will be the third prime minister in 11 months.

She is considered to be a very close ally of the PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, who was convicted of ballot-rigging and faces charges of abuse of office. His two-year prison sentence was suspended.

If the current anti-corruption legislation is enacted, the case against him would be dropped.

Danchila was brought in after her predecessor stepped down on Monday after falling out with the party head.

The new prime minister is set to be sworn in on February 2. One of her first tasks could be appeasing the marchers. </s> BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Romanians marched through heavy snow in Bucharest on Saturday in protest against corruption and attempts by the ruling Social Democrats to weaken judicial independence.

An estimated 50,000 people marched towards parliament from the iconic University Square, the site of all major protests since 1989, blowing whistles, waving flags and chanting “Thieves!”, while thousands more demonstrated in cities across Romania.

The Social Democrats (PSD) and their junior coalition partner ALDE used their majority to push a judicial overhaul through parliament in December, despite criticism from the European Commission, the U.S. State Department, thousands of magistrates and centrist President Klaus Iohannis.

Critics say the bills would weaken judicial independence and they have been challenged in the Constitutional Court where they await a ruling.

“I came out today because I have two little boys and they deserve a better life in this European country,” said Florentina Caval, 34. “I honestly don’t think we will manage to overturn the judicial bills, but we need to try.”

Lawmakers will also debate a new set of proposals to change the criminal code - including decriminalising some offences and lowering prison sentences - when parliament reconvenes in February.

An earlier PSD attempt to decriminalize several corruption offences at the start of 2017 triggered Romania’s largest street protests since the 1989 fall of Communism.

“This is a last-ditch attempt before leaving the country. The year 2018 will be decisive,” a 34-year-old real estate entrepreneur who travelled from the Transylvanian city of Sibiu to the capital of Bucharest said.

Later this month, the ruling coalition is expected to give its third prime minister in a year a vote of confidence following the resignation of former premier Mihai Tudose after falling out with powerful party leader Liviu Dragnea.

Prime Minister designate Viorica Dancila’s cabinet will mostly be judged at home and by investors on whether it will hamper or facilitate the European Union state’s struggle to stamp out high-level corruption.

Transparency International ranks Romania among the EU’s most corrupt states, although Brussels, which has Romania’s justice system under special monitoring, has praised magistrates for their efforts to curb graft.

Romania’s anti-corruption prosecutors have sent 72 members of parliament for trial since 2006. The speakers of parliament’s lower house and senate are on trial in separate cases. </s> Several protests against the Romanian justice minister’s proposal to dismiss the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi are planned this weekend in Bucharest and in several cities across the country.

The first protest is planned for today, February 23, in the capital’s Victoriei Square.

“Come to the square to protest against this decision targeting the fight against corruption, which breaks Romania’s European commitments and proves once more that the Social Democratic Party (PSD) did not understand any of the main messages of the protesters in Victoriei Square: We want justice, NOT corruption!,” an announcement on the event’s Facebook page reads. The protest is to start around 19:00.

Other protests in support of the activity of the DNA have been announced on Facebook for Sunday, February 25 in Bucharest, Cluj, Ploiesti and outside of the country, under the slogan “Tudorele, you leave, you and your thieves!”

Another protest has been called on March 10, also in Bucharest’s Victoriei Square. The event plans to draw 1 million Romanians to the capital on the day the PSD is holding a congress to reconfirm its leader, Liviu Dragnea.

The announcement made by justice minister Tudorel Toader about the DNA head’s dismissal already stirred protests in Bucharest, where over 1,000 people gathered in Victoriei Square on the evening of February 22. Hundreds also took to the streets in Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Sibiu, Constanta, Brasov or Iasi.

At the same time, an online petition in support of the chief prosecutor of the DNA was started online. Almost 8,000 people had signed the petition by mid-day February 23.

Reacting to the justice minister’s announcement, Laura Codruta Kovesi said she will “follow the legal procedure and be present, whenever needed, to answer, point by point, to all statements presented by the justice minister.”

The European Commission (EC) said it was watching the developments in the case “with caution and concern.” “The independence of the judiciary in Romania and its ability to fight corruption effectively are fundamental elements for a strong Romania within the EU,” the EC said. </s> Tens of thousands of Romanians protested in Bucharest and other main cities on Sunday against government’s plans to decriminalise certain offences and pardon convicts through emergency decrees that could hurt an anti-graft drive.

The plans unveiled earlier this month by the social democrat government have been criticised by President Klaus Iohannis, by the prosecutor general, the Supreme Court, the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, civil rights groups and diplomats.

The police said about 50,000 people took part in the rally in Bucharest, making it the biggest demonstration in a recent wave of protests.

Shouting “Thieves, thieves”, protesters gathered in freezing weather in the capital’s main square Piata Universitatii and then rallied outside the justice ministry, the ombudsman’s office and the government’s headquarters.

According to the drafts, the government intends to decriminalise abuse of power actions causing financial damage of less than 200,000 lei ($47,500).

Abuse of power accounts for a third of anti-corruption investigations. The ruling leftist Social Democrats’ leader Liviu Dragnea is at present on trial in an abuse of power case. Dragnea, who received a two-year suspended jail sentence for a 2012 referendum-rigging conviction, has branded the recent street protests an attempted coup.

“I am here because I can’t believe that 27 years have passed and I find myself in the same place in the same square,” said actress Adriana Moca, recalling the eruption of the 1989 anti-communist revolution in Bucharest.

Thousands of people also protested in main cities in the country and in several European Union capitals.

On Monday, justice minister Florin Iordache will hold a round of public consultations over the plan - on which the country’s top panel of magistrates has already issued a non-binding, negative opinion.

Protesters shouted anti-government slogans and asked for the resignation of the justice minister, chanting: “Stop corruption,”, “No pardons, yes schools and hospitals,” and backed President Iohannis’s calls for a nationwide referendum to step up the anti-corruption fight.

The government is also seeking to pardon convicts sentenced to less than five years for committing certain crimes, and cut sentences by half for all prisoners aged over 60, and those having a terminal illness, regardless of their crime.

President Iohannis on his Facebook page on Friday said German chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he had a telephone discussion at her initiative said: “The chancellor expressed full support for efforts to maintain progress made by our country, but she expressed concern that certain steps initiated during this period do not affect the fight against corruption in Romania.”

The European commission keeps Romania’s legal system under special monitoring. It has praised magistrates’ efforts to fight widespread graft, but noted Romanian politicians have a history of trying to pass legislation which could weaken investigative powers.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators protest in Bucharest and major cities against perceived corruption and changes to the judiciary. Romanians in diaspora stage protests in dozens of cities worldwide in solidarity with the anti-corruption movement in the country.