November 20 (SeeNews) - A couple of thousand people rallied on Sunday night in Bucharest and other Romanian cities to oppose controversial fiscal changes announced by the government and to support the fight against corruption.
Some 500 people gathered in front of the government headquarters in Bucharest to protest against an emergency decree introducing changes to the fiscal code that was issued by the government at the beginning of November as well as against government plans to appoint Romania's chief prosecutor without the consent of the president.
Protest rallies were also held in Timisoara, Brasov and in Cluj-Napoca, local media reported.
On November 8, Romania's governing coalition comprising the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE) approved an emergency decree to change the country's fiscal code starting January 2018. The changes, which have drawn fire from businesses, stipulate that workers will have to pay the social security contributions currently paid by employers, while income tax will drop from 16% to 10%.
In the view of employees, the changes will not increase their net salaries, as the government claims, and will only complicate their fiscal position.
At the beginning of November, businesses and Romanian president Klaus Iohannis asked the governing coalition to abandon the planned tax changes which in their opinion will lead to fiscal chaos.
People also protested against against PSD's plans to make possible the appointment of Romania's chief prosecutors by the justice minister, without the control of the president.
This was the third straight Sunday of protests in Romania.
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