The Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that President Klaus Iohannis must approve the government’s dismissal of Laura Kövesi, the chief prosecutor of anti-graft unit the DNA.

“This is the moment to sound the alarm and express concern about the potential damage to the independent status of prosecutors, which represents an essential premise of the fight against corruption,” the DNA said in a statement.

“Without the legal guarantees that now exist, the fight against corruption would not have been possible and the loss of these guarantees could seriously affect investigations by anti-corruption prosecutors,” it added.

Iohannis has previously said that Justice Minister Tudorel Toader’s reasoning for wanting to remove Kövesi contained “weak arguments” and has defended Kövesi’s work.

In response, the Romanian government took the case to the Constitutional Court, which ruled in its favour Wednesday.

The government accuses Kövesi of violating the constitution, but her supporters say she has been targeted for investigating corruption among Romania’s political elite.

Members of the ruling left-wing government welcomed the court ruling, while the opposition centre-right, to which Iohannis belongs, said the decision, made by six votes to three, “deals a heavy blow to the court’s credibility”.

More than 108,000 people had signed an online petition calling on Iohannis not to dismiss Kövesi.

Earlier this year, Kövesi said the agency had investigated a record number of cases in 2017, despite “unprecedented attacks” by political authorities.

Romania is one of the most corrupt countries in the EU and the bloc has placed tight oversight mechanisms on its judicial system.