COUNTRY BRIEF Romania - Decline and Re-Democratization 2016-2020

Democratic Backsliding (2017-2018) The developments are reflected in the V-Dem data in Figure 1: the In 2016 the Social Democratic Party (PSD) won the Romanian parliamen- Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index saw a statistically significant tary elections and formed a new government. [...] Many commentators believed that the removal The V-Dem data shows a decline on the Freedom of Expression and was politically motivated as Kövesi had indicted and investigated several Alternative Sources of Information Index, moving from 0.89 in 2016 to ministers and legislators of the PSD, including the party leader himself. [...] Disinformation and populist ceased much of the attempts to censor and constrain media, reflected hate campaigns with xenophobic and anti-Western rhetoric report- in the statistically significant jump up on the indicator on government edly gained traction under the PSD-led government, including allega- censorship efforts on the media from 2.4 in 2018 to 3.4 in 2020. [...] Censorship efforts of the media have once again come to light as the prosecutor failed to investigate a smear campaign against a journalist The change in direction is primarily the outcome of abandoning the who revealed the Prime Minister had plagiarised his doctoral disserta- practices of the previous government, allowing courts and the media tion. [...] The change in government saw a reduction in coordinated attacks on the rule of law and the judiciary.