Representatives of the National Renaissance Alliance of Romania and of the Alliance of Romania’s Families call on the Romanians everywhere to unite in support of the Furdui family whose seven children were taken by the Jugendamt. They urge to show solidarity for encouraging the German authorities to become involved and solve this case so that the children return to the family.
In a news conference at IPN, lawyer Peter Costea, chairman of the Alliance of Romania’s Families, said that Petru and Camelia Furdui, who are practicing Christians, are from Hunedoara and several years ago moved to Germany. On April 26, 2021, their seven children were transferred under the custody of Jugendamt – the German child protection service – in the absence of a court order.
Peter Costea noted that the German authorities, through the agency of Jugendamt, accused the parents of going to Hanover two times a week to listen to readings from the Gospel. They were also blamed for making the children live according to the Christian ideology and principles, by praying, including before meals, and by singing Christian songs. The family was accused of occasionally going to a church in Mannheim where the disciplining of children is preached, with the children being kept far from the “society’s influence”.
“Being a lawyer, I immediately realized that the German authorities grossly violated the parental rights of the Furdui couple and also the Convention on the Rights of the Child that was adopted by the UN in 1989. Also, as a practicing Christian, I was bewildered by the abusive way in which the German authorities chose to focus on the Christian faith and practices of the Furdui family as a reason for taking the children from their parents,” said Peter Costea.
According to him, the case of the Furdui family generated multiple reactions and a series of protests were mounted in a number of localities in Romania and other countries, including in front of embassies of Germany and of administrative buildings. The main demand in those protests was to reunite the family as swiftly as possible.
Beniamin Lup, executive president of the National Renaissance Alliance, said the party is a Christian-conservative political movement and its members came immediately with a response of support for the Furdui family. The Alliance’s members staged protests and picketed Germany’s consular representative offices in Romania. They pleaded for defending the family, for protecting the rights of the children, the rights of the parents to raise their children and to educate them in the spirit of the traditions and values they consider necessary.
According to Beniamin Lup, the next protests will be mounted in Bucharest on November 28. A wide-scale event will be held on December 18 and similar demonstrations will be staged simultaneously in other localities. Signatures continue to be collected from citizens in Romania and Moldova for an international petition in support of the Furdui family. These signatures, besides the 21,000 collected so far, will be transmitted to the Romanian authorities, including the President.
