Romania's government has said it will withdraw a decree decriminalising minor grant offences, backing down on a controversial plan to water down anti-corruption laws following five days of mass protests across the country.
"Tomorrow (Sunday) we will hold a government meeting to repeal this decree," Sorin Grindeanu, Romania's prime minister, told a news conference on Saturday.
"I do not want to divide Romania. It can't be divided in two."
The announcement came as tens of thousands of people protested for a fith day against the contentious decree that decriminalises abuse of power offences in which the sums do not exceed 200,000 lei ($48,000).
Al Jazeera's David Chater, reporting from the demonstration in the capital, Bucharest, said the news about the decree's withdrawal sparked celebrations among the 70,000 protesters who had gathered in the city centre.
"People power on the street has succeeded in pushing the government into making these concessions," Chater stated.
"There is going to be a massive celebration here, instead of another heated protest."
The decree, which was adopted earlier this week, prompted large protests throughout the country, the largest since the fall of communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.
On Saturday afternoon, demonstrators launched another noisy march in central Bucharest, blowing whistles and vuvuzela horns in the national colours, heading for parliament to form a human chain there.
The emergency decree decriminalised criminal punishments for conflict of interest, work negligence and abuse of power cases in which the financial damage is valued at less than $48,000.
A separate bill, to go before parliament, would free some 2,500 prisoners on short sentences.
The government said it was bringing legislation into line with the constitution and reducing overcrowding in prisons.
But critics feared a setback for a year-long fight against graft, calling the measures as a brazenly transparent effort by the government to let off some of the many corrupt officials involved in a series of scandals.
Mihai Politeanu, founder of the Initiative Romania NGO, told Al Jazeera the decriminalisation would had been a disaster for the future of Romania", taking it "back to the early 1990s when corruption and oligarchs took over the country".
Aljazeera