Romania witnessed the 6th day of the protest on Sunday in order to maintain pressure on the government despite its climbdown over contentious corruption legislation that sparked the biggest protests since 1989.
On Saturday, the government pledged to repeal the punishment for corruption that initially resulted in days of furious protests, saying it would meet to do so today. But demonstrators were not convinced.
“Today we are going to break new records,” Florian, 40, told AFP in Bucharest, saying he didn’t trust the government to retract the legislation as promised. “We don’t believe that,” the electrician said as he distributed free pretzels and tea at Victory Square, the epicentre of this week’s protests.
By Sunday, hundreds of protestors which were assumed to be thousand in time gathered at the square in solidarity. Saturday, an estimated 330,000 people demonstrated across the nation, TV reports said, in what was the biggest turnout since the toppling of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.
The crowds, largely young, have chanted, waved banners, blown vuvuzela horns in the national colours and paraded effigies of government officials in black-and-white prison uniforms. Critics say that the emergency government decree issued late on Tuesday represents a retreat on corruption, long the scourge of this ex-communist nation.
