Romania’s massive protests make international headlines over the weekend

After almost a week of daily street protests over a now repealed emergency ordinance that was looking to bring changes to the criminal laws and decriminalize some corruption offenses, Romania is making headlines in the international media, which noted the size of the protests, the largest the country has seen in 25 years and the impact they had, more immediately on pressuring the government to change its decision but also as an example of people power. The Guardian reported on the government’s decision to retract the emergency ordinance and characterized the protests as the “biggest outpouring of public anger since the toppling of Ceausescu.” In the Opinions section of the British daily’s website, another piecenotes that the protesters “so far managed to steer away from harmful associations with opposition parties” and highlights the “civic creativity” inspired by the government’s actions. A videoon the BBC website outlines three things to know about corruption in Romania: politicians perceived to act in their own self-interest can expect to be held to account by the people, the protesters expect the government to resign despite having retracted the ordinances, and Romania has been putting considerable effort over the past years in fighting corruption. The Financial Times, besides reporting on the outcome of the protests, ran in its FT View section an opinion on the protests as A victory for people power in Romania. Aljazeera notes a "