Socially conservative parliamentarians are on the offensive in Romania, scaring the population in order to promote legislative changes that would take it back to ‘pre-secular’ times.

Two years after the failure of a referendum meant to change the constitution, to specify that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, new conservative energies are being injected into Romania.

Significant amendments to two laws indicate a drift in the direction of illiberal politics, if not straight in the direction of anti-liberal politics.

The first is the planned amendment to the law on the protection and the promotion of children rights (Law 272/2004).

According to it, sex education would be available to children only under the condition of parental written consent. Parliamentarians also changed the name of the course, replacing “sexual education” with “education for health”.

In most EU countries, sex education is mandatory in schools. But both the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church have positioned themselves against teaching sex education in Romania.

Source: BalkanInsight