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Iordache wrote the government decree, which decriminalized abuse of power offenses involving sums below $47,500, as well as clemency and reduced prison terms for government officials convicted of corruption offenses . Although the Romanian Supreme Court has not ruled on its legitimacy, the bill, announced last week, would shield many politicians from prosecution.

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis told lawmakers Tuesday the country is in a “fully-fledged” political crisis, after hun… . A anti-government protester holds a poster depicting the leader of the ruling Social Democratic party Liviu Dragnea in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017.

The largest anti-government crowds since the violent 1989 revolution that toppled dictator Nicolae Ceausescu succeeded Sunday in pressuring Romania’s new government to repeal a hastily adopted decree that would have eased penalties for official corruption. The law, opposed by the influential Romanian Orthodox Church, would have weakened the country’s emerging anti-corruption effort, which has begun to make progress against a ruling culture accustomed to acting with impunity.

When fire tore through a Bucharest nightclub in 2015, victims were rushed to the city’s Floreasca hospital – but its newly-built, multi-million-euro burns unit was standing idle and could help no one. Sixty-four people eventually died and the Social Democrat government was brought down within days by popular anger over the failure to enforce fire-safety regulations at the Colectiv nightclub, a failure blamed on endemic corruption and negligence.

More than 250,000 Romanians have protested against new government measures to decriminalise corruption, seen as the biggest retreat on reforms since the country joined the European Union in 2007. Romania’s top judicial watchdog, the Superior Magistrates’ Council , earlier in the day filed a constitutional court challenge to the decree unveiled by the new Social Democrat government of Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu.

Protesters march outside the Justice Ministry in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017. Some 10.000 people marched through the Romanian capital and other cities to protest a government proposal to pardon thousands of prisoners which critics say could reverse the anti-corruption fight.

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Fire engulfed a popular nightclub in Bucharest, the Romanian capital, early Saturday, sending 44 people to the hospital, including one who was seriously injured, officials said. The fire erupted in the early hours at the upscale Bamboo nightclub, which was burned to the ground.

The fire comes after the disaster at another Bucharest nightclub in October 2015, which killed 64 people – the worst nightclub fire in the country’s history. Bamboo has several clubs in Romania, and one in Miami, Florida.