More than 200,000 people flocked to the government building in capital Bucharest on Sunday, but the embattled prime minister was defiant.
“The manner though which a Government can be dismissed would be though a censure motion, because the other method, the one in which I would resign, it's not possible, because I won't resign," he told reporters.
The emergency decree adopted last week decriminalizes graft cases in which the damages are valued at less than 200,000 lei ($47,800).
Met with a fiery backlash, Grindeanu said Saturday he will revoke it. “This is the democratic game and I believe that we have to return as urgent as possible to these notions,” he said of his about-face.
The decree, which came a month after Grindeanu Social Democrats-led government came to power, triggered the largest demonstrations in the country since the fall of communism in 1989.
In a letter sent to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday, Prime Minister Grindeanu explained why his cabinet passed the controversial decree and a draft bill which includes prison pardons for several offenses.
His detractors claimed the decree would harm Romania's fight against corruption.
Anadolu Agency