Romania's ruling party has, literally, shown the middle finger to EU institutions as it prepares to take on the bloc's presidency next year.

The obscene gesture was made in parliament on Wednesday (14 November) by Florin Iordache, the deputy speaker from the Social Democrat Party (PSD).

He did it after a speech denouncing the European Commission and the European Parliament over their criticism of Romanian judicial reforms, which, the EU executive indicated, resembled the same kind of political meddling in the judiciary as in Hungary and Poland, which are under EU sanctions procedures.