In May, Romanian reality star Teodora Marcu was shot dead by her former partner. Thousands marched in protest, but the state remained silent. Mimi Mihăilescu argues that Romania’s democracy, which has long excluded women from power, must confront the systems that render women's deaths predictable and politically acceptable
On 31 May 2025, 23-year-old pregnant mother and Romanian reality TV star Teodora Marcu was executed by her ex-partner, 49-year-old Robert Lupu. Despite having made multiple complaints to the police, and being under protective orders, Marcu took four gunshots in front of her three-year-old daughter, and other children, on a Bucharest street. This was not murder, but a state-sanctioned femicide by a democratic system that functions as a killing apparatus for women.
Another shocking case followed just two weeks later. On 16 June, a 22-year-old pregnant woman was killed with an axe by her 37-year-old partner, in front of her mother and children. It was the 26th case of femicide in Romania this year alone. As in Marcu's case, the woman had contacted police repeatedly about abuse she had suffered since adolescence. Officers visited the perpetrator on the morning of the murder, but failed to make an arrest.
In the first four months of 2025 there were, on average, 14 cases of domestic violence every hour in Romania. The state has institutionalised its indifference to women's deaths. The thousands who gathered in Bucharest's Victory Square, and around the country, under banners declaring 'When the state stays silent, women die', understood what political institutions continue to ignore: these are not isolated acts but state failure spanning decades.
Protesters returned to the streets repeatedly after Teodora Marcu's murder and again following the most recent femicide, uniting under the slogan Niciuna înfrântă, niciuna uitată, niciuna mai puțin – None defeated, none forgotten, none less important.
In the 2024 Gender Equality Index, Romania ranked lowest of all EU member states. Its position reflects not failure but function. Women constitute barely 20% of parliament, and hold virtually no decision-making power. Their systematic elimination becomes state policy implemented through calculated neglect. In the last eight years, 426 women have been killed in Romania by a family member. That's more than one every week.
Women constitute barely 20% of Romania's parliamentarians, and they hold virtually no decision-making power. Political culture treats women's safety as a secondary concern
The institutional failure becomes even more stark when we look at broader violence statistics. In 2023 alone, 40,956 women experienced domestic violence. Figures have risen consistently across multiple government administrations. Social democrats, liberal, and conservative governments have failed to implement violence prevention measures because political culture treats women's safety as a secondary concern. The state has created a conveyor belt of violence that processes women toward death with bureaucratic precision.
Romanian politics has mastered performative inclusion. Governments appoint women to visible but powerless positions, ensuring the real decision-making remains in male-dominated networks. Parties can thus claim gender balance while maintaining structural exclusions that marginalise women. Women's rights become optional add-ons rather than fundamental democratic components.
This pattern finds its most extreme expression in George Simion and his Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR). Simion, a nationalist and vocal supporter of Donald Trump, is a typical proponent of this binary thinking that positions masculinity as strength and femininity as weakness. He famously declared that he is 'a fighter, not a woman'. After six years of the party's existence, there remain no women in AUR leadership, reflecting the misogynistic structures that span Romania's political spectrum.
Simion's misogynistic rhetoric extends beyond abstract policy positions into direct personal attacks. He even confronted fellow politician Diana Șoșoacă with the threat 'I am going to sexually abuse you, you pig!'
When misogyny becomes an accepted political tool, political disagreements swiftly escalate into gender-based intimidation. When political institutions signal that women's voices are disposable, they provide the ideological framework for treating women's lives as equally expendable.
Social media has transformed from a communication platform to a weapon of mass psychological destruction against women. Research indicates that toxic online content makes 66% of girls feel judged for their appearance. The digital environment normalises women's degradation, priming them to become victims of violence.
The online response to Marcu's murder exposed Romania's 'culture of shame' that subjects victims to further abuse and sometimes fatal consequences. Digital platforms have become extensions of state violence, creating permission structures for broader societal attitudes that view women as legitimate targets for elimination.
Romania's tolerance of gender-based violence makes it the perfect environment for mysogynistic enterprises – like the one run by Andrew Tate – to flourish
Andrew Tate's presence in Romania until his arrest is typical of the country's permissive attitude toward misogyny. Tate's ability to operate his controversial business on Romanian soil shows how the country's regulatory environment tolerated enterprises built on the exploitation of women. It is a tolerance that stems from decades of political indifference to gender-based violence.
Donald Trump's global political brand has influenced Romanian politicians across the spectrum. Figures like Tate, meanwhile, have provided rhetorical frameworks for the weaponisation of misogynistic content. The Romanian state had already created the perfect environment for misogynistic enterprises to flourish.
Teodora Marcu’s murder was not simply the failure of a system; it was its clearest expression. Romania’s democratic institutions enabled her death through decades of neglect, performative reform, and structural misogyny. Its political culture has never truly imagined women as full political subjects.
Romania's democratic institutions and political culture have never truly imagined women as full political subjects
Why has a state that calls itself democratic normalised femicide as a feature of its governance? What does it mean when protection is viewed as a privilege, not a right?
Romania’s institutions have grown comfortable performing equality while evading accountability. They uphold a democratic façade under which women remain peripheral, expendable, unseen. If a state will only listen after women are dead, we must question its foundations. The protests of 2025 challenge the foundations of Romanian democracy. In Romania, democracy has not failed women. It was never built for them in the first place.
This is an horrific picture painted here. But my limited experience suggests that this article omits reference to another institution, another factor at play: the church, specifically the Romanian Orthodox Church. Their conservative stance on social issues underpins a view of women that disempowers them of any meaningful agency. It was also interesting (and no coincidence) to see the support given to Simion in the recent Presidential election. It would be interesting to know how the awful statistics presented here divide between urban and rural areas. Do we see more violence against women in rural areas, where the church has greater sway and where such behaviour might be tolerated more, or the urban areas, where women may be more likely to try to exercise control over their lives? Or is it so prevalent that there is no urban-rural divide?