Monday, 23 May 2016, the members of the Coalition for Family submitted to the Senate the legislative proposal for reviewing the Constitution to clearly define the family – TRINITAS TV informs.
The initiators propose to mention the fact that a family is based on the freely consented marriage between a man and a woman.
“We all are witnessing a historical, national and European premiere as three million Romanian citizens signed, in one common effort of solidarity, the bill concerning the review of the Romanian Constitution, of article 48, paragraph 1, more exactly, which refers to the definition of marriage as union between a man and a woman. We try, in this way, to replace the present text of the Constitution reading that marriage is based on the freely consented union between spouses”, Mihai Gheorghiu, president of the committee of constitutional initiative said.
Almost 12,000 files of signatures were brought to the seat of the Romanian Senate by a lorry together with a 30 metres long symbolic letter, the longest letter ever addressed to the Romanian Parliament.
“Romania is included in a European trend in this sense. There is an initiative at European level for defining marriage in these terms and the examples of Croatia and Slovenia occurred last year which have already had a successful referendum for including this definition of marriage in their Constitutions”, Mihai Gheorghiu has also mentioned.
This is the greatest civic initiative for changing an article in the Romanian Constitution. According to the form proposed by the Coalition for Family, paragraph 1, article 48 of the Romanian Constitution should specify that family is based on the marriage freely consented between a man and a woman, on the equal status, right, and duty of the parents to ensure the growth, education and training of their children. The new formulation of the article also strengthens the right of the parents to educate and grow their children in accordance with their own values.
“After 40 years of communism, the Romanian people show that it is possible, that we can join together on a common theme. Solidarity is, in fact, the essential thing that we were able to achieve through this civic initiative”, Ioan Şolea from the Coalition for Family said.
“This initiative is not against anything, it is for the traditional family consisting of a man and a woman who can give birth to children”, Alina Tomi said – member of the committee of constitutional initiative.
After submitting the files, the documentation will be analysed and validated by the Constitutional Court and the proposal for revision voted by the Parliament. In case the initiative is approved by the Parliament, the citizens of Romania will be called to referendum to express their agreement or disagreement for changing the Constitution.
Photo: Lumina newspaper
