Protests — Thousands of people participated on Saturday evening in a protest organized in Bucharest in front of the Interior Ministry against the way in which the authorities have managed the case of a teenager from Caracal (southern Romania) Alexandra, who called the emergency number 112 to announce that she was abducted by a man, but the authorities have only managed to reach the place where the girl was kept after 19 hours. Protests also took place in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Basov, Braila and Alexandria. The suspect, a 65 year old man, was taken into temporary custody for 30 days, being accused of child trafficking and rape, but so far there is no evidence for murder accusations. The suspect has not admitted any of the accusations and no body was found. One of the most important pieces of evidence in this case is the girl’s emergency calls made from the aggressor’s phone. On Saturday, the PM Viorica Dancila dismissed several officials and ordered the setting up of an inter-institutional working group that should draft a plan of urgent measures to improve the reaction time in critical situations at the level of the entire state system. In turn, president Klaus Iohannis called on the interior minister and the director of the Special Telecommunications Service to speed up investigations into the Caracal case. He added that he expected a first assessment of the situation on Tuesday at the meeting of the country’s Supreme Defense Council.
Presidential election vote — Romanian voters from abroad who want to vote in the November presidential election by post or in a polling station from abroad, near their place of residence, can sign up on an online platform as of Sunday. The Permanent Electoral Authority created the website votstraintate.ro to have a clearer record of Romanians abroad and to provide them with more info on the voting process in the run up to the November presidential election. The portal has two sections: voter abroad in a polling station and voter abroad through postal vote. The registration forms will be active until September 11. The Ministry for the Romanians Abroad has recently announced that more than 5 million and a half of Romanians have left the country. Alongside the Romanians in the historical communities, the number of Romanians living abroad stands at almost 10 million.
Baku — Romania ended the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival that took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, between July 21-27 on 11th position in the nations’ ranking with 19 medals: 4 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze. The first three positions are held by Russia, Great Britain and Turkey. Romanian athletes have won medals in 6 disciplines: wrestling, judo, swimming, artistic gymnastics, volleyball and athletics. Romania was represented by 103 athletes at the 15th edition of the summer 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival.
Rowing — Romania won a gold medal and a silver one on the first day of the final competition of the World Rowing Under-23 Championships from Sarasota-Bradenton (Florida, USA). Florin Sorin Lehaci and Dumitru Alexandru Ciobică world vice-champions in 2018 won the gold medal in the men’s double sculls competition. The women’s four crew made up of Larisa Elena Roşu, Elena Logofătu, Nicoleta Paşcanu, Tabita Maftei won the bronze medal. On Sunday Romania will be represented by 4 crews in the finals, in the men’s single scull, the men’s four, the women’s eight and the men’s eight.
Anthem — On Monday military ceremonies will be organized in Bucharest and other cities of Romania to mark the National Anthem Day. Other events include religious services and music shows. Celebrated on July 29, the National Anthem Day was proclaimed in 1998. Romania’s current anthem is “Deşteaptă-te, române!”, – “Awaken Thee Romanian!” and it is considered a national symbol after the fall of the communist regime in December 1989. The anthem is inspired by a patriotic poem by Andrei Muresanu published in 1848 with the music collected by Anton Pann. (translation by L. Simion)