Gay Marriage Ban Referendum, Romania 6th October 2018

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http://www.novinite.com/articles/182952/Romania+is+Planning+to+Ban+Gay+Marriage+by+Referendum

Romania plans to hold a referendum sometime in the Autumn constitutionally banning gay marriage. Of the Eastern European countries accepted into the EU only Estonia and Slovenia (where a gay marriage ban failed due to an inability to reach quorum) do not have such a ban in place.

Notably this split anti-corruption party the Save Romania Union, with its members voting against the ban causing the leader Nicusor Dan (who had a few favourable media write-ups a while back) to leave.

[mileslunn]

I suspect it will pass quite easily.  I believe Romania is one of the more homophobic countries in the EU.  It seems despite the end of the iron curtain you still have a strong East/West divide on gay rights in Europe.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Klaus Iohannis also opposes the ban, right? What about his liberal party?

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A familiar face:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/13/romania-anti-gay-marriage-campaign-kim-davis

[SNJ1985]

Eastern Europe has done a fantastic job of resisting the cultural leftism that has thoroughly infected America and Western Europe. This should pass handily.

[Dr. MB]

Unfortunately this will likely pass. Romania's one of the most socially conservative European countries.

On the bright side, maybe if it's successful Kim Davis can go move there.

[Kamala]

Eastern Europe has done a fantastic job of resisting the cultural leftism that has thoroughly infected America and Western Europe. This should pass handily.

Yeah, at least they’ve got that going for them.

[DavidB.]

Likely to pass and then to be overturned by the European Court of Human Rights in a few years, which will legalize same-sex marriage once and for all throughout the entire EU.

[parochial boy]

There is no way the country responsible for this can ban gay marriage

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

There is no way the country responsible for this can ban gay marriage

They are Moldavian.

[Beagle]

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.

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Does Ponta have a home now that he's out of PSD?

[Beagle]

Does Ponta have a home now that he's out of PSD?

Funny you should ask. He does... in the SNS. That is the Serbian Progressive Party. Like Basescu before him, Ponta must have felt the need to have a secondary citizenship at hand, should the situation require a quick exit to spend time with his money family, and Vucic granted him 'honorary' citizenship a week ago. That must be why he feels comfortable issuing statements like this, following Tudose's resignation:

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[Tender Branson]

This is today and tomorrow.

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For the changes to the family code to become law, 30% of registered voters have to vote in 2 (!) days.

Today, there was 5.2% turnout.

LOL.

http://business-review.eu/news/romanias-family-referendum-polls-open-for-over-18-million-voters-186745

PS: Crabceck, please change the title.

[Tender Branson]

The constitutional referendum in Romania to limit marriage to a man and a woman will fail:

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It will likely end up with a turnout of just 20% (LOL) vs. 30% that is needed.

[Tender Branson]

That's kinda surprising, because some 85% of Romanians (theoretically) oppose gay marriage.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

That's kinda surprising, because some 85% of Romanians (theoretically) oppose gay marriage.

How is that surprising? This is Eastern Europe. Romania in parliamentary elections have turnout smaller than 40%. Why in some referendum they would have bigger?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Even if most people oppose gay marriage, they aren't going to bother going out of their way to ban it twice because the PSD wants people to talk about anything but how crap they are.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

I watched a TV report about the Romanian peasant population, which stoutly denies same-sex marriage. And gosh, that reminded me of the news coverage about the rural South or Midwest...