Bucharest: Romania’s business and trade minister resigned on Thursday over a government decree decriminalising a number of graft offences and which brought more than 250,000 Romanians out in protest.

Florin Jianu wrote on Facebook that resigning was ‘the ethical thing to do’ for the sake of his child.

‘How am I going to look him in the eye and what am I going to tell him over the years?’ he wrote.

Tuesday’s government decree, along with a draft bill granting prison pardons, has been criticised as the biggest retreat on anti-corruption reforms since the country joined the European Union in 2007.