Up to 1,000 people marched in Bucharest on July 2, defying thunder and pouring rain to protest against the appointment of Mihai Tudose as prime minister and several some recent rulings of the Constitutional Court that will allow the government to weaken anti-corruption legislation. 

The protest took place shortly after the endorsement of the new government, and follows much larger anti-corruption rallies held this winter. Although much smaller in scale compared to the hundreds of thousands that turned out earlier this year, the protest can be seen as a sign that Romanians have not given up the anti-corruption fight and are ready to take to the streets again should MPs and the government take steps to weaken legislation on conflict of interest and abuse of office. 

The march started in Victory Square, which in January and February was the site of the biggest protests Romania has seen since the fall of communism. Demonstrators marched through Bucharest city centre, Romana Square and University Square, to the parliament and the Constitutional Court.

The march was mainly organised against recent rulings by the Constitutional Court that the redefinition of the conflict of interest offence for public employees as “using the position in order to favour a person” was constitutional, according to the Facebook page of the event. The protesters were also unhappy with court’s ruling that the parliament should set a ceiling above which abuse of office is considered an offence.

At the end of January, the former government issued an emergency decree according to which abuse of office would have been redefined so that it would have been a criminal offence only if the damage caused had exceeded RON200,000 (€44,500). The leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) was seen as one of the beneficiaries of the legislation, as the damage caused in the case in which he has been tried for instigation to abuse of office stands at RON108,612. 

“All these are signs of incipient dictatorship, and civil society must wake up and protest,” the organisers of the march said.

The protesters chanted slogans such as "No ceiling”, “CCR [Constitutional Court], PSD's servant”, "PSD, the red plague”, "We don't want to be a nation of thieves”, "Justice, not corruption”, and "DNA [National Anticorruption Directorate] should come and get you”.

The protesters were also unhappy with the appointment of Tudose, whom they consider “a disappointment to civil society”.

“We all had expectations after President Iohannis mentioned the qualities he expects from the person proposed for this post: to be a man of integrity, to have no issues with the law and to have the professional qualifications to lead a government. In spite of this, they chose a man with no achievements in [the former prime minister Sorin] Grindeanu, with a doctorate diploma suspected of plagiarism and believed even within his own party to have connections with the intelligence services,” the organisers of the protest wrote.

Last month, the PSD dismissed Grindeanu’s cabinet, citing its poor performance. A no-confidence vote backed by the PSD and its coalition partner forced Grindeanu to stand down only six months after forming a government.