Romania’s top court approves initiative to define marriage as between man and woman
A move to enshrine marriage in the Romanian
constitution as a lifelong partnership between a man and woman moved closer to
reality with the approval of the country’s Constitutional Court.
The initiative, if successful, would amend
Article 48 of the Constitution, which currently states, “The family is founded
on the freely consented marriage of the spouses, their full equality, as well
as the right and duty of the parents to ensure the upbringing, education and
instruction of their children.” The initiative would replace “spouses” with “a
man and a woman.”
In May, the Coalition for the Family announced
it had gathered more than three million signatures in favor of the amendment,
six times what the constitution requires.
The coalition’s Mihai Gheorghiu said at the
time that the surplus would be “a signal, a confession, a warning” to political
and government leaders.
Once the coalition turned in its signatures,
the Constitutional Court had to decide if the objective was constitutional. But
according to Romanian American lawyer Peter Costea, it was not a problem
because Romanian law has never recognized same-sex “marriage” or civil union,
and the European Court of Human Rights does not recognize a right to same-sex
“marriage.”
Now that the court has approved the
initiative, both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies must also approve it by
a two-thirds majority.
Costea thinks the country’s
conservative-minded parliamentarians will sign on. However, a 2013 attempt to
insert traditional marriage into the constitution faltered when it provoked
strong, hostile lobbying by the United States and Western European governments.
But according to Agenda Europe, the Christian
news website, “It is believed that a very considerable majority of the Romanian
population has strongly resented this interference from outside and remains in
strong opposition to the absurd idea of same-sex ‘marriages.’” The final step
would be a national referendum.
While the country’s parliamentarians are
conservative minded and “90 percent would want to support this,” Costea said,
“they might want to wait till after the elections and pass this hot potato on
to the next parliament.”
If the initiative passes Parliament, it must
garner at least 30 percent of the eligible ballots in a national referendum.
Costea said that should not be a problem because “goodness, the latest polling
shows 88 percent of the country opposed to same-sex ‘marriage.’ People are
absolutely tired of the direction things are moving in.”
