Romania govt party leader Dragnea announces massive demonstration in support of traditional family, dismisses rumors of a prime minister's departure

Romania’s governing party, the Social Democrats (PSD), will organise a massive demonstration in support of the traditional family, PSD leader Liviu Dragnea announced on Monday. He made the announcement as info about a planned PSD demonstration „of 1 million people” had circulated earlier today, in connection with speculation about an alleged intention of prime minister Viorica Dancila to resign.

Both Dragnea and Dancila – who is largely seen as a puppet PM in a government effectively controlled by the PSD leader – dismissed „rumors” that the latter would resign.

But Dragnea later said the PSD would hold a „very large demonstration” in support of the traditional family. He said he wanted to eliminate all doubts about the resolution of the PSD in this regard.

His statement comes as the Senate is about to vote on a proposal to review the Constitution in line with a call several years ago that the the constitutional definition of marriage, which now refers to the union between two persons, be changed to a union between a man and a woman.

The call was submitted by a coalition of NGOs, known as the Coalition for Family, which managed to gather millions of signatures in their support.

The PSD has long insisted he would go on and comply with the call, given its massive support, but so far it has mostly used it as a political tool only. More recently, PSD officials have pointed to May this year as the moment when a referendum to change the constitution would take place.