March 6 (SeeNews) - Some 8,000 people gathered on Sunday night in Bucharest and other Romanian cities for another night of protests against the government over what they see as attempts to weaken the country's fight against graft.
Every day since January 31 hundreds of people during weekdays and thousands on Sundays have been gathering in Piata Victoriei square in front of the government headquarters to demand its resignation.
On Sunday, some 7,000 protesters marched from the square to the Parliament building and then to the ministry of justice chanting support messages for the country's anti-graft agency DNA. Also, they observed a moment of silence in memory of the people who died during the revolution of 1989, which overthrew communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Some 1,000 Romanians also protested in other cities such as Timisoara, Brasov and Cluj on Sunday, local media reported.
On the night of January 31, the government approved an emergency decree which amended the Criminal Code. The decree was hastily published in the country's Official Gazette, sparking the biggest rallies since the fall of communism in 1989. The decree would have made abuse of office punishable by jail only if the sums involved exceeded 200,000 lei ($47,500/44,000 euro). Yielding to pressure from the protesters, the government repealed the decree on February 5, but street rallies have continued. Last week, Romania's parliament also definitively ditched the controversial decree.
On February 26, some 1,500 people gathered in the southern city of Targoviste in a pro-government rally organised by the local subsidiary of governing Social Democrat Party (PSD), local media reported.
According to a poll released in mid-February by Romania's Social and Political Studies Institute, ISSPOL, support for the left-wing PSD has dropped to 31% from 46% shortly before the December 11 elections. Yet, PSD remains the political party, for which most people will vote in case of early elections, followed by centre-right political formations National Liberal Party (PNL) with 17%, Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE) with 2% and Popular Movement Party (PMP) with 1%, according to the ISSPOL survey.
The poll, in which 965 eligible voters were interviewed nationwide, has a margin of error of +/-3.2%.
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