In Romania, democracy is becoming a form without substance, as democratic institutions are hollowed out and citizens are harassed for exercising their rights

 

On 21 March we launched the „State of Democracy in 2023” Report, developed by the Centre for Public Innovation, CeRe: Resource Centre for Public Participation, ActiveWatch and the Association for Technology and the Internet, members of the „NGOs for the Citizen” Coalition. The event also included a discussion about court actions, which are demanding very high legal costs from citizens who have exercised their right to challenge public or private projects that are harmful to communities.

Now in its third edition, the report is a summary of the main slips from democratic values in 2023. As has been the case consistently in recent years, the slow but steady decline of democracy continues. We enter the super-election year 2024 with weakened institutions and citizens harassed when they claim their rights.

Because we see a danger to freedom of expression and the right to seek justice, we have used the space for debate provided by the launch of the State of Democracy 2023 Report to bring up some cases of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs).

We were joined by many citizens and representatives of organisations who are now paying dearly for trying to defend the public interest.

Also, as we are in an election year already marked by controversy, we presented the Manifesto for a Healthy Election Campaign, a document proposed to the political class and relevant institutions by some 100 non-governmental organisations and citizens’ groups.

 

How did 2023 look like for – DEMOCRACY-

 

While citizens are harassed…

Courts of justice allow, at the request of state institutions and private companies, ordinary citizens who oppose, in the public interest, projects harmful to the environment and the health of the inhabitants to pay fabulous legal costs. In the same vein, NGOs challenging urban planning projects that damage the environment and people’s health in court are being dissolved following lawsuits brought by property developers.

Journalists who upset the political system are harassed by the very public institutions that are supposed to protect their status and right to freedom of expression. At the same time, political parties use generous subsidies from public funds to influence the media agenda without transparency.

In the past year, we have again identified intimidation of activists and leaders of non-governmental organisations by the heads of public institutions.

… or prevented from exercising their rights…

Public institutions that want to hide information continue to do so, and if citizens, NGOs or journalists go to court to get it, the processes take up to 3 years, with no guarantee that they will get it or that the heads of the institutions will be penalised.

We continue to note situations where public consultation is organised merely as a formality, out of the need to tick off legal provisions. Public institutions opt for the minimum consultation period required by law, even when debating complex draft laws.

In 2023, we still see cases where citizens are denied the right to attend local council meetings in municipalities. At the same time, public institutions have taken advantage of the introduction, as early as 2022, of an arbitrary exception in the legislation on decision-making transparency and continue the trend of previous years: urgency is the rule and not the exception.

… democratic institutions become forms without substance:

In 2023, the Government continued to abuse the ordinance instrument, in a usurpation of Parliament’s role as legislator. A total of 129 emergency ordinances and 42 simple ordinances were adopted, and there was no shortage of the notorious „ordinance-trailers”, which regulate several areas in a single piece of legislation.

The work of the legislature is affected by language and even physical aggression, which leads to a tightening of the rules, but only in the sense of limiting citizens’ access to information and decision-making.

Parliament continues to make political appointments to the leadership of independent institutions, which affects their capacity. One example is the National Council for Combating Discrimination, where new appointments have been made not on the basis of competence, but rather on the basis of political criteria, which has led to bizarre decisions, to say the least, such as the sanctioning of an art exhibition for allegedly offending people’s religious feelings.

Even the exercise of elections has been sabotaged. And in 2023, the political power still refused to hold elections in the more than 50 localities where the mayors elected in 2020 lost their mandates, thus perpetuating a convenient interim situation.

 

The „State of Democracy in 2023” report is available HERE