Andrew Tate’s toxic legacy in Romania is warping its democracy

Prosecutors in Romania officially charged social media influencers Andrew and Christian Tate with trafficking and sex offences involving minors on 4 September . But the Tates were not around to be hauled into a police station in Bucharest, they were in a Miami jail fighting extradition to the UK on similar charges .

That two of the world’s most high-profile misogynists may finally be brought to justice is a reason to celebrate. But in the country which hosted them for so many years, their toxic legacy continues to pollute the atmosphere.

Before his arrest Andrew Tate expressed a preference for countries where “corruption is accessible to everybody.”

An underregulated webcam industry and struggles with combating sex trafficking could also be contributing factors.

But this only partially explains why the self-styled ‘king of toxic masculinity’ may have based himself here since 2017, and why his poisonous messages had fertile ground in which to germinate.

Once we understand that, we might be able to start pushing back before it’s too late.

Compared to other countries in the region, Romania’s feminist movement is relatively young.

In 2000 , the Romanian edition of Playboy published a supposedly satirical article titled: “How to Beat Your Wife Without Leaving Marks.”

The outrage prompted the first major waves of protests and women’s rights activism against gender-based violence and its normalisation in Romanian society.

But in 2026, Romania ranks low in European rankings on gender equality metrics, and high on incidents of domestic violence.

Romania has no mandatory gender equality education and no comprehensive sex education, while across swathes of the country, boys and young men lack access to quality education and jobs.

Successive governments have failed to improve their circumstances, and traditional, social pressure on men to provide for a family or partner fosters anger and resentment.

This disillusioned generation presents ripe pickings for demagogues like the Tates to sell a cartoonish fantasy of success based on subjugating women.

Because of lack of any national data, our organisation helped conduct the first nationally representative study into how rapid social and technological advances are reshaping the values, gender perceptions, and political choices of young Romanian men.

Our findings show a mixed picture where patriarchal beliefs endure but alongside self-confidence issues over how to bond with women.

While 53 percent strongly agree that "in a relationship, a woman should be available for sex whenever her partner wants it," a slightly higher percentage believe that women still do not have adequate rights.

The dividing lines are not created by age or urban versus rural but by education and economic precariousness.

A quarter of respondents with university education agree that a man’s honour must be defended through violence, a figure that rises to 50 percent by those with vocational education.

Whereas formal education covering these issues is absent, the online environment fills the vacuum and the misogynistic, racist, and homophobic values of the manosphere connect to extreme-right movements in Romania and worldwide.

Our concerns are that the Tates’ legacy on the minds of young people is so damaging that we may only see the true effects in years to come.

But it is never too late to act. In April, Romanian parliament overwhelmingly supported a new law defining the concept of femicide with offenders given potential life sentences.

The legislation also calls for teaching on gender equality and non-violent relationships to be included in the national curriculum, though this is yet to be implemented.

Many young men are still open to alternative ideas, so we have time to shape their attitudes and we should not delay - 72 percent interviewed agree democracy is a good form of government but 58 percent want a strong leader who does not bother with parliament or elections.

As a riposte to the commercial masculinity bootcamps run by manosphere characters, our organisation runs free and healthy masculinity camps for young men between 18 to 22 years old.

Led mostly by male trainers, participants from across the country and from a broad socioeconomic background discuss their ideas of masculinity, democracy, extremism, and mental health.

Many describe loneliness, a lack of physical spaces to build friendships, and a growing guilt for being male.

Providing young men with a non-judgmental environment to open up is a better way to ensure a safer society, rather than putting the onus on women to change their behaviour.

Young men also need to be taught media literacy, so they can recognise hate speech and radicalisation techniques used by the manosphere and the far right to target them.

Positive male role models can encourage young men to open up about problems, but they also need to be exposed to narratives instilling the values of democracy and pluralism.

Online platforms remain vastly under-regulated, while offline spaces that provide young people, male and female, with environments in which to socialise and form meaningful connections are lacking.

Politicians have successfully harvested the Tates’ audience through skilled social-media targeting, and this bore fruit in the last presidential elections, where young men voted heavily for parties headed by authoritarian leaders.

The radical right is currently leading the polls, and ongoing political deadlock may yet result in them entering government .

Young Romanian men are not yet a lost cause, but without a concerted societal effort to combat the sinister forces that influence them, democracy in Romania, and across Europe, may not survive their loss.

Cristina Praz is a senior expert in strategic communication and gender equality at the Romanian NGO Centrul FILIA