As you can probably surmise, there was no gay marriage referendum held in late 2017. There may be one in 2018, but Romanian politicians constantly moot referendums designed to serve their campaign talking points and to never come to fruition - case in point, the PSD proposal to restore the Romanian monarchy. It is quite funny/cringeworthy, since the only recent time a referendum actually passed the high participation threshold - the
2009 proposal for unicameral legislature/reduction of parliamentary seats - it got soundly ignored by the parliament and the voters never punished the ruling parties for ignoring their will.
Anyway, since this is the most recent Romania thread this forum has (and interest does not really warrant making a new one), I am using it to briefly summarize the latest Liviu Dragnea
bulls... hi-jinks:
Yesterday, PM Mihai Tudose resigned after the executive body of the PSD withdrew their support from him. The ostensible cause was Tudose’s demand that the interior minister resign her position. After the arrest of a pedophile policeman, she had tried to get rid of two high ranking police chiefs, who had both criticised the pro-corruption laws that the governing party is trying to pass, but the PM refused to sanction their dismissal and accused her of lying. Since the interior minister is a staunch Dragnea loyalist, the leadership of the PSD overwhelmingly backed her in this conflict and the PM had to go.
Tudose lasted less than 7 months, but it's still a bit longer than his predecessor Sorin Grindeanu, who left office under similar circumstances in June. As expected, Dragnea picked a woman for the vacant PM position - although not the first choice, which was the Education minister. The PM-designate is MEP
Viorica Dancila (54), former head of the Teleorman County Council, currently the leader of the PSD group in the European parliament and the leader of the PSD women organization. She is seen as very close to Dragnea, because she comes from his fief and owes her rise entirely to him (she was a high school teacher before becoming a MEP). Presumably she is high profile enough that President Iohannis cannot refuse to give her the mandate, as he did for the first PSD nominee back in 2016. It remains to be seen however if Iohannis really will accept her. If not, the parliament will probably impeach him. Of course, the impeachment will ultimately be rejected in a referendum - Iohannis is vastly more popular than Basescu, who survived two impeachment attempts - but for the month or so in which there would be a caretaker, picked by parliament, Dragnea’s faction could pass laws to make Dragnea eligible to be PM again, destroy the special anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, remove even further the guarantees for judicial and police independence etc.
