Where does Romania’s newly-elected president Nicușor Dan stand on LGBTQ+ rights?

Romania’s centrist Bucharest mayor, Nicușor Dan, has won the presidential election in the country. But where does he stand on LGBTQ+ rights?

Reuters reported that Dan’s far-right, Pro-Trump rival George Simion conceded the election after previously saying that he won. Official votes on Sunday (18 May) showed Dan winning around 54 per cent of ballots in Romania, while George was at 46 per cent.

The election marked the highest percentage of voter turnout in an election in the country in 25 years. Dan said upon securing his victory: “We need to build Romania together irrespective of who you voted for.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy congratulated the new president on his “historic victory”, writing: “For Ukraine – as a neighbour and friend – it is important to have Romania as a reliable partner.’

But what does the centerist victory mean for the future of LGBTQ+ rights in Romania, and what has Nicusor Dan said about LGBTQ+ issues? Here are some key points.

“The worst thing that could happen in Romania is that the debate would be about who defends traditions and who doesn’t”

In 2017, the then-head of Union Save Romania announced he was stepping down from the party over its stance on equal marriage. 

At the time, as per Politico, Dan said he was against his party’s plans to oppose calls for the law to be changed to define a marriage as only between a man and a woman. However, he did not vote on the issue in parliament at the time, as per local outlet BalkanInsight.

“The worst thing that could happen in Romania now is that the main debate would not be about who steals and who doesn’t, but about who defends traditions and who doesn’t,” he said in a press conference at the time.

He says he is “neither conservative nor progressive”

In 2018, Dan said that he voted in the failed family referendum, which attempted to establish a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. However, he refused to identify how he voted in the “ideological dispute”.

“I define myself as a technocrat,” he said. “You have seen that there have been countless positions on this subject, I have not defined myself on one side or the other (progressive or conservative – no). 

“I believe that I can bring added value to the public administration in Romania and especially in Bucharest, which is precisely why I want to be desirable for both a conservative and a progressive public and I let this debate be held in society with all the arguments and with all the openness, and I would like each of these two categories of people to have understanding towards the other’s point of view.”

“Civil partnership is the first step towards legalising marriage between people of the same sex”

In March this year, Dan suggested that “society” must come to an agreement regarding civil partnerships and equal marriage for those in the LGBTQ+ community, while “politicians should only be mediators of this debate”.

He told Pro TV: “It is an issue that society must resolve. On the one hand, there are families, there are even heterosexual couples who are in a situation where they are not married for various reasons and there must be some possibilities to visit them in the hospital, to leave a legacy. On the one hand, there is a position of the conservative side, of society, which says that civil partnership is the first step towards legalizing marriage between people of the same sex.”

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