Half a Million Demonstrations in Romania; Government to Release New Criminal Law

The Romanian Minister of Justice announced on Monday, February 6, that after the repeal of the previous criminal law, which faced public protests, details of a new criminal bill would be published. This news came a day after the largest public demonstrations since the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu in 1989 took place across Romania. According to media reports, on Sunday evening, over half a million Romanians took to the streets in Bucharest, the capital, and dozens of other cities. This marked the sixth night of widespread public protests against the new bills proposed by the ruling Social Democratic Party in Romania. Protesters chanted, 'We do not believe you, we will not surrender,' as the Romanian government officially repealed its previous decision regarding the cap on financial corruption. Last Tuesday, the Romanian government changed the established cap for financial corruption of government officials based on a bill that had not been approved by Parliament but was enforceable. According to this bill, prisoners with sentences of less than five years, except for violent offenders and those with prior convictions, would be pardoned, and several financial crimes with estimates or results of less than 44,000 euros would be exempt from prison sentences. Additionally, based on this bill, 2,500 political party convicts would be released. The Romanian government had previously stated that this bill was introduced to align criminal laws with new constitutional court rulings. Critics, however, argue that the newly empowered Romanian government is using changes in the law to undermine the fight against financial corruption. Opponents claim that the main objective of this bill was to benefit Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, and several other figures in the party who are facing allegations of abuse of power and are under trial. The Social Democratic Party of Romania has been in power for less than two months.