We are excited to invite you to the online debate on 6 February 2025, where we will delve into the Romanian Constitutional Court’s controversial decision in December 2024 to annul the presidential elections. The discussion will not only examine the annulment itself (and the constitutional reasons invoked by the Court) but will also explore its broader implications for democracies across Europe. The challenges that prompted this extraordinary decision are not unique to Romania and resonate with issues faced by other European democracies (e.g., the rapid degradation of democratic public deliberations and the oversized electoral effects of opaque social networks). The panel aims to shed light on these common threats and potential responses to safeguard democratic integrity.

Speakers:
Vlad PERJU, Harvard Law School
Reflections on the Constitutional Annulment of the Presidential Elections in Romania

Bogdan IANCU, University of Bucharest
Liberal, Illiberal and Structural Authoritarianism: The Invalidation of the Romanian Presidential Elections

Sergiu MIȘCOIU, Babes Bolyai University (Cluj)
‘Le government des judges’: a syndrome or a remedy in times of democratic crisis?

Moderators:
Camil PÂRVU, New Europe College, Bucharest / University of Bucharest
Isabella LÖHR, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam (ZZF) / CMB Berlin

Discussants:
Renata UITZ, CEU – Democracy Institute, Budapest / Royal Holloway, University of London
Dietmar MÜLLER, Institute of Political Science at Leipzig University

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This conference is organized in the framework of the project Scaling the Transnational. Entangled Political Imaginaries and Practices in East and West Europe (STEPPE), supported by New Europe College in cooperation with CEU-Democracy Institute, Budapest, Institute of Political Science, Leipzig and Center Marc Bloch, Berlin.

This project seeks to offer an innovative take on studying the transnational engagement of political movements and ideological paradigms across the symbolic dividing line of Western and Eastern Europe. It focuses on multi-directional transfers and interactions, transnational imaginaries of the self and the other, and the underlying experiences that came to shape the European public sphere in the 21st century. Thus, it seeks to accentuate the politics of East-West entanglement as key, but often overlooked, component of European political culture and social imaginary.