Romania government feels heat after record demos

Pressure intensified on Romania's government today after half a million people joined the biggest nationwide protests in almost three decades, with many calling for it to quit.
Demonstrators vowed no let-up as a no-confidence opposition motion was set for its first reading in parliament, although the government's majority means it is unlikely to pass.
The sixth straight evening of demonstrations yesterday came despite the left-wing government scrapping the measure that started it all: an emergency decree weakening anti-corruption laws.
Brandishing banners, waving flags and blowing whistles and vuvuzela horns, protesters said they believed the government was still not to be trusted, with many chanting "Resign! Resign!"

"They are corrupt. We want justice... The government will still try something (with the decree)," Emma, 24, one of around 250,000 protesters that media estimated were in downtown Bucharest, told AFP.
"They are liars and bad people," her friend Nicole, 25, shouted above the racket at Victory Square, the epicentre. "The government has to fall... We are going to come back here every night."

Despite the protests, which are the biggest since people power brought down dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and the communist system in 1989, the government remained defiant.
Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu said his Social Democrat party (PSD), which won a resounding election victory only in December, has "a responsibility to the people who voted for us" and would stay.

PSD head Liviu Dragnea -- already barred from office for a voter fraud conviction and currently on trial for alleged abuse of power, a charge he denies -- said he believed the protests were being instigated by unspecified powerful forces.
"Who is organising this? Hard to say but I hope that the state institutions have this information," Dragnea said in a television interview.
"I reproach myself for not having understood that this is a much better organised plan than a simple spontaneous movement."
The government decree, which had been scheduled to enter into force on February 10, was to make abuse of power a crime only punishable by jail if the sums involved exceeded 200,000 lei (44,000 euros, USD 47,500).

One Monopoly-inspired placard on Sunday read: "Do not collect 200,000. Go straight to jail."
The government still also aims, via a separate decree to be reviewed by parliament, to free some 2,500 people from prison serving sentences of less than five years.