Is the Romanian Parliament preparing to pass a law aimed at confiscating people's private property because Romania has too many homeowners? No, that's not true: there is no such law being debated or about to be passed by the Romanian Parliament.
The claim originated in a video published by TikTok user @adrian.bucuresti (archived here) on May 17, 2023, with the following caption (translated from Romanian to English by Lead Stories staff):
145 has passed, now 144 is next. Everything for the common good.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri May 19 07:14:30 2023 UTC)
The graphic on the video refers to laws PLx 145 and PLx144. The PLx145 law, passed by both chambers of Parliament but still to be promulgated by the Romanian President, has been erroneously associated with the false claim that the government will now be allowed to take away children from their families under certain conditions. In reference to it, the TikTok video claims that the Parliament is now preparing, through the PLx144 draft law, to take away people's private property because Romania has too many homeowners.
According to Eurostat, Romania has the biggest homeownership rate in the European Union (as of 2021, over 96% of Romanians own the houses they live in), but there is no plan to upend this. The 144/2023 draft law mentioned in the video is a law concerning the activities and attributes of bailiffs (law-enforcement officers), and it is not related to homeowners. No draft law concerning homeownership or private property is currently being debated in the Chamber of Deputies or in the commissions, according to the Chamber's website. The right to private property is enshrined in Article 44 of the Romanian Constitution, as well as in Article 17 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Moreover, the speaker in the video making the claim is Adriana Bahmuțeanu, a familiar figure on Romanian TV, known for spreading misinformation.
Draft law PLx 145/2023, adopted by the Senate in March 2023 and debated in the Chamber of Deputies (a decision-making body) between April 18 and 19, 2023, is named "Draft law to organize the activity of prevention of separation of the child from their family". Its purpose is the exact opposite of what has been claimed erroneously on several posts circulated on social media: it is meant to help poor families keep their children and offer them support. The Minister for Family, Youth, and Equal Opportunities, Gabriela Firea, confirmed this for Mediafax. ro, Radio Free Europe, and G4Media, explaining why the law is beneficial and timely.
