The Romanian referendum on the redefinition of marriage failed to reach the required minimum 30% turnout to be validated, data from the Central Electoral Bureau showed on October 7.

In the referendum, Romanians were asked to vote on a change of the Constitution so that it would state that the family is a union between a man and a woman and not a union between spouses as it is now.

Only 20.41% of the Romanians cast their vote by 9pm on October 7, after two days of voting.  

Although it will bring no change to the Constitution, the referendum has large political implications. The low turnout may signal people’s dissatisfaction with the current political class. Among the Romanian political parties, only the opposition Save Romania Union (USR) has said it is against the changes, while the others either supported the referendum or urged their party members to vote according to their beliefs.

The low turnout and invalidation of the referendum represent a blow to the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD), which supported the constitutional amendment, and might indicate the falling support for the party, as it did not manage mobilise the masses and attract enough voters to the polls. The failure might put even more pressure on the party leader Liviu Dragnea, who has already been challenged from within the party.

The PSD deputy general secretary Codrin Stefanescu called the result a “failure of Romanians and Romania” and rejected any political implications of the vote. “This referendum has not been politically assumed by anybody,” Stefanescu said.

But it is not only PSD that was hit by the result of the referendum. Shortly after the voting was closed, some leaders of the main opposition party, the National Liberal Party (PNL), started to criticise the party leadership, which was accused of leading the party to political failure.

“The PNL leadership has thrown the party into a new adventure and a new political failure, which has torn us away from 70% of the liberal electorate. The PNL leadership does not unite, but divide. It does not modernise, but proposes a retrograde policy,” former PNL leader Alina Gorghiu wrote on Facebook.

Although the civil society group which collected 3mn signatures in favour of the redefinition of the family, the Coalition for Family, has rejected any political implications, the initiative received large support from politicians who promoted views on the “traditional family” and urged people to cast their vote.

However, the planned change was harshly criticised by NGOs which claimed the referendum could lead to a breach of international human rights standards and increase homophobic discrimination in the country.

In addition, opponents, who encouraged people to boycott the referendum, claimed it was pointless as the Romanian Civil Code already defines marriage as a union between man and woman, and that it is only a means to distract the population’s attention from controversial changes to justice legislation promoted by the ruling coalition.

Romania has been the scene of repeated anti-governmental protests since February last year after the ruling PSD and Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (Alde) adopted a series of changes to justice legislation, seen as weakening the country’s anticorruption fight. In addition, more pressure is coming from the EC, which has repeatedly criticised the changes.