The ÎMPREUNĂ (TOGETHER) civic platform – the most far-reaching and profound form of unity for the Romanian civil society

The Romanian civil society upholds the values the people of Romania identify with.

In the context of recent upheavals generated by more and more insistent attempts to change the natural meaning of various realities, an extensive part of civil society – morally conservative in its essence – has deemed necessary to unite in order to protect the right to opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, religious freedom and the dignity of all who uphold the fundamental values such as natural family and marriage and all the values of European Christian civilization.

The ÎMPREUNĂ (TOGETHER) civic platform for rights and liberties represents the most far–reaching and profound form of unity for the Romanian civil society, reuniting more than 1.000 NGO’s and public persons and intellectuals from all over Romania. It is for the first time in the country’s recent history that a project has enjoyed such overwhelming support. Up to now, it gathered more than 500 NGOs from all over Romania and 10 international NGO endorsers.

Here are the activities that had been performed by the ÎMPREUNĂ (TOGETHER) civic platform during the eight months since the establishment, and to date, all the activities being made:

* Letter sent by 133 NGOs from the Together Civic Platform to the European Council on 19 of March 2018 on the issues that raised concerns in the national and international public space on gender ideology normalized through the Convention from Istanbul. 200 additional NGOs from 9 European countries joined the initiative;

* Public denunciation of the „educational” campaign on sexual orientation diversity targeting minors from the Romanian high schools that started on January 19th in Bucharest and continued afterwards in Focșani with a similar conference about gender rolls and gender identity for teenagers. Both were publicly denounced on the grounds of violating the rights of parents and children;

* The implementation of an administrative – judicial approach towards the Ministry of National Education on LGBT propaganda activities in schools;

* Summon the Ministry of National Education through official letters addressed by 126 NGOs from the Together Civic Platform on respecting the parents’ rights;

* The implementation of a media campaign through visual/video materials to raise awareness of the need for a referendum to define marriage in the Constitution;

* The initiation in the majority of the counties in Romania, namely: Alba, Arad, Argeș, Bacău, Bihor, Bistrița-Năsăud, Botoșani, Brăila, Brașov, Buzău, Caraș-Severin, Cluj, Constanța, Covasna, Galați, Giurgiu, Harghita, Ialomița, Iași, Neamț , Prahova, Sibiu, Suceava, Timiș, Vâlcea, Vaslui, Vrancea, as well as in Bucharest, of extensive public debates on the variants of the framework plan for high school education, as they were made public by the Ministry of National Education;

* The carry out of a campaign of sending 10,000 letters to the Romanian MEPs, requesting them to express their support on the organization of a marriage referendum in Romania by signing the Letter initiated in this respect by a group of MEPs of other nationalities.

* The carry out of a campaign, through protests and public letters addressed to the authorities, to support Camelia Smicală, the Romanian mother from Finland whose children were confiscated by Child Protection;

* Signing, together with other entities from the Romanian civil society, to the Declaration from Bucharest, dated 16 September 2017, addressed to the President of Romania calling for the cessation of the campaign for the defamation of the Romanians who signed for or support the civic initiative for the constitutional definition of marriage, denouncing any attempt to politicize or politically confiscate this initiative.

* Organizing – under the auspices of ÎMPREUNĂ ten cultural event all over the country, regarding the promotion among young people of the Romanian values in the context of European values.

* The initiation in the majority of the counties in Romania, as well as in Bucharest, of extensive public debates on the national strategy of parental education.

* Co-organized, with ADF International (Bruxelles), the international conference “The Referendum for Marriage in Romania: National and international perspectives”, on May 3^rd, 2018, at the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, Romania.

Therefore, in less than a year of activity, the ÎMPREUNĂ (TOGETHER) civic platform managed to organize in a coordinated manner several events and actions of public interest, in almost all the counties of Romania, managed to voice the concerns of the civil society on the ideological aggression in the Romanian schools and managed to transform the Romanian authorities’ responsibility towards the Romanian citizen from an abstract idea into an institutional reality. Obviously, all this effort, both at central and territorial level, had shown the organic functionality of the ÎMPREUNĂ (TOGETHER) civic platform and its development potential.

Let’s hope that in the progressive agenda that is in process of implementation in Romania, there is room for the public manifestation of Christian or conservative values and for this incredible proof that the Romanians do have the ability to organize and associate in a rigorous, neutral, coherent, reasonable and organic way, by themselves and not by agendas of diverse interests.

As history fully demonstrates that all the epochs in which freedom and dignity are disregarded ended sooner or later, for the future of our children, the ÎMPREUNĂ (TOGETHER) civic platform will proceed with the achievement and protection of the respect and promotion of the authentic conservative, European values – such as family, education, freedom of speech and belief, as well as of the dignity of the 3 million Romanians who signed for a marriage referendum.

Source: Platforma ÎMPREUNĂ