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BUCHAREST, Romania – A referendum in Romania on the desirability of restricting the constitutional definition of a family to a man and a woman has failed dramatically over the weekend, with only 20.4% voters taking part in the vote.
Romania is one of six countries in the European Union that does not allow same-sex marriage or civil unions. But his constitution uses non-sexist language to define "family" and conservative groups, fearing that this would lead to legal recognition of same-sex relationships, called for a referendum.
Opposition groups boycotted the vote, so the new constitutional text needed the support of the majority of voters. But the turnout was so low that the results of the referendum seemed nil, leaving the existing definition of the family.
The participation rate was well below 30%, the threshold for a referendum to be binding, despite a decision by the government, which had largely supported the referendum, to grant two days of voting instead of voting. ;a. The final results should be released Monday.
The vote has dominated the public debate in Romania in recent weeks, dismissing the debate corruption and proposed changes in the justice system that critics say could weaken the rule of law.
Opponents of the referendum declared that the mere act of delaying it was jeopardizing human rights in Romania.
A few days before the vote, 47 members of the European Parliament sent a letter to the Romanian Prime Minister expressing his opposition, noting that this was not just about L.G.B.T. families but also "single-parent families, non-married partners with children" and "grandparents raising their grandchildren".
Amnesty International voted against the referendum, saying limiting the definition of the family could increase discrimination. Romania, where homosexuality was legalized in 2001, ranks 25th among the 28 members of the European Union for issues such as equality, non-discrimination and legal recognition of LGBT people, according to ILGA-Europe, a Brussels-based homosexual and transgender rights group.
"According to what we hear, hate speech and other forms of aggression have multiplied" since 2016, said Barbora Cernusakova, Amnesty International's researcher on Romania.
The campaign to amend the Constitution really began that year, when a group called Coalition for Family presented a petition with three million signatures to push for change. Last month, Romanian senators voted overwhelmingly for a referendum and the country's Constitutional Court gave its green light shortly thereafter.
Political analysts suggest that the referendum was held partly to distract Romanians from the struggles of the government, which was criticized last week by European lawmakers for pursuing policies that they believe would weaken the rule of law.
The government "needed a smokescreen for people to forget a bit about the justice system," said Claudiu Tufis, an associate professor of political science at the University of Bucharest.
Although officials have managed to divert attention, said Tufis, this effort could turn against the ruling Social Democratic Party. "People will interpret this as a failure of the Social Democrats to get people to vote," he said.
The Romanian Orthodox Church has also done a great campaign. In a statement read in the country's churches a week before the vote, Patriarch Daniel described the referendum as "an act of faith professed in God's love for the family" and "an examination of spiritual maturity for choose between permanent values and ephemeral ideologies ". . "
The president of the Coalition for the Family, Mihai Gheorghiu, said the vote was necessary to defend freedom of speech and religion and protect children from what he described as a "gender ideology" that drove to "confusion and early sexualization".
In a statement on Sunday, as low turnout became evident, the coalition blamed the boycott and a campaign that it said was aimed "directly and primarily at Christians in Romania".
Whatever the final result of the referendum, the separatist rhetoric of the campaign could have a lasting effect.
Sitting in a café in Bucharest a few days before the vote, Paul Muresan, a 30-year-old host, explained the impact on them, like him, in the film L.G.B.T. community.
"What scares me is that every day in my mailbox, I find leaflets that say that homosexuals are targeting orphaned children," he said. "The referendum wakes up something we are going to be very ashamed of in a few years." Four gay friends, he said, intend to leave the country.
The results of the referendum would have had little concrete effect on the status of same-sex relationships. In mid-September, the Romanian Constitutional Court ruled that same-sex couples should have the same rights to family life as others.
"Even before the decision of the Constitutional Court, there was no legal reason to organize this referendum," said Romanita Iordache, jurist and vice-president of the Accepting Defense Group.
"This is not a referendum on legislative changes, it is a vision for Romania," she said. "We now know that the Romanian population does not buy this illiberal hatred and that as a country we remain European in our spirit."
