Radio România Internațional

Tag: DACIAN

  • October 13, 2021 UPDATE

    October 13, 2021 UPDATE

    TALKS Romania’s Prime Minister designate, USR leader Dacian Ciolos said that
    no decision was made during the first round of talks he had on Wednesday with
    representatives of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Democratic Union of
    Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) and of the national minorities with a view
    to building up a government majority. A new meeting is going to take place on
    Friday. Ciolos says he wants to forge a government as soon as possible to be
    able to tackle the issues related to the pandemic and the soaring energy
    prices. According to Ciolos, the USR sees no majority format except for that
    involving the PNL, UDMR and the representatives of the minorities in Romania.
    According to interim Prime Minister and Liberal leader Florin Citu, the responsibility
    for a majority lies with the USR, PSD and AUR who voted the PSD censure motion
    that led to the dismantling of his cabinet. In turn, UDMR leader Kelemen Hunor
    has signaled the lack of trust and recommended politicians to put
    self-importance aside.








    HOLOCAUST Romanian president Klaus Iohannis attended an International Forum
    dedicated to the commemoration of the Holocaust and combating anti-Semitism in
    Malmo, Sweden, on Wednesday. In his speech Iohannis said quote, ‘attempts at
    denying and distorting the Holocaust have lately turned increasingly subtle and
    dangerous in order to downplay the responsibility of the participants and their
    cronies as well as the suffering inflicted on the victims.’ President Iohannis
    says that Romania has been involved in an ample process of revising the
    education programmes about the Holocaust with its young generation. The
    Romanian official has also mentioned the efforts underway for the inauguration
    in Romania of the National History Museum of the Jews and the Holocaust.






    COVID-19 According to the National
    Centre for the Supervision and Control of Infectious Diseases in Bucharest, 94%
    of the deaths caused by the coronavirus over October 4th and 10th
    consisted of patients with related comorbidities while 73% of the confirmed
    cases and 91% of the registered fatalities consisted of unvaccinated
    individuals. Authorities in Romania on Wednesday announced over 15,700 new
    infections as well as 390 fatalities. At least 1670 people are in ICUs and the
    highest infection rates have been reported by capital city Bucharest and Timis
    county, in western Romania. Doctor Adrian Marinescu, with the Bucharest-based
    Institute for Infectious Diseases, says that he expects the entire month of
    October to be very difficult from the viewpoint of the medical crisis but
    believes the situation will improve and the upcoming winter holidays are going
    to be peaceful.








    AID
    Hungary will help Romania to treat 50 patients infected with Covid-19 who are
    in need of intensive care, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto was
    quoted by MTI as saying on Wednesday. The 50 patients are to be treated in two
    hospitals in Hungary. According to the Hungarian official, Hungary has already
    donated ventilators and favipiravir, an
    anti-viral drug used in treating Covid 19. Poland has offered 50 oxygen
    concentrators while Italy has donated five thousand doses of monoclonal
    anti-bodies also used in the treatment of the disease. We recall that
    authorities in Romania had called for international assistance in their efforts
    to keep the pandemic at bay.




    (bill)

  • February 18, 2020 UPDATE

    February 18, 2020 UPDATE

    INTERVIEWS Specialized committees of
    the Romanian Parliament are interviewing the ministers that would form Prime
    Minister Ludovic Orban’s second cabinet. On Tuesday, economy minister Virgil
    Popescu and Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu got endorsed, whereas Ion Stefan
    proposed for the Ministry of Development, Ionut Stroe at the Ministry of Youth
    and Sports, Catalin Predoiu for the Ministry of Justice and Monica Anisie for
    the Ministry of Education were rejected. On Monday, Nicolae Ciuca, the current
    interim minister of defense, was the only one to get endorsement. Another
    three, namely Finance Minister Florin Citu, Interior Minister Marcel Vela and Environment
    Minister Costel Alexe got negative opinions. The 16 ministers of the Orban 2
    government, which has the same structure and membership as the government
    dismissed by means of a no-confidence vote, are being heard until Wednesday,
    and the investiture vote is scheduled for February 24. The Prime Minister
    Designate has decided to maintain the same membership of the Government because
    he was satisfied with their activities. The opposition Social Democratic Party
    has announced it will not vote the candidates proposed to form the new
    government. The National Liberal Party’s plan is to get the two governments
    rejected, in order to dissolve Parliament and start early elections. The Parliamentary
    elections might thus be held between the 15th and the 30th
    of June, which is within the same timeframe as the local elections.












    MINISTER Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis received the Foreign and
    European Affairs Minister of Slovakia, Miroslav Lajcak in Bucharest on Tuesday.
    The two officials hailed the way in which the two national minorities are integrated
    in the two societies, Romanian and Slovak, significantly contributing to the
    development of the ties between the two countries. Iohannis also evoked the
    excellent relations between the two countries built upon historical and
    cultural affinities as well as on converging interests in the political,
    economic and security fields. The two high officials voiced their commitment to
    carrying on the consolidation of the bilateral relation, including of the
    political dialogue. Also on Tuesday, the Slovak official met the head of the
    Romanian diplomacy Bogdan Aurescu who said that Romania endorses a future
    decision on opening accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia as
    soon as possible.










    DRILL The Chief of Staff of the
    Romanian Army, General – Lieutenant Daniel Petrescu, on Tuesday attended, at
    the ‘General Emanoil Ionescu’ 71 Air Base in Campia Turzii, in north-western
    Romania, the Distinguished Visitors’ Day of the Romanian – American Exercise
    DACIAN REAPER-20. The event was also attended by US ambassador to Romania,
    Adrian Zuckerman. One of the most advanced drones in the world, owned by the US
    Army, was presented on the occasion. Over January – March 2020, the Airbase in
    Campia Turzii is hosting this event organized and planned in 2019. The US
    soldiers are members of a unit that carries out information, surveillance and
    research missions from the Miroslawiec airport in Poland.








    (translated by bill)

  • Voting intentions ahead of the European elections

    Voting intentions ahead of the European elections

    It’s hardly news anymore, but the
    latest opinion poll confirms it: Romanians are more pessimistic about the
    direction their country is taking and more optimistic about that of Europe.






    A poll conducted by INSCOP Research
    between the 5th and the 13th of March and commissioned by
    the Konrad Adenauer Foundation indicates that almost three quarters of
    Romanians, namely 73%, believe their country is heading in the wrong direction,
    while only 18% say it is heading in the right direction.






    The perception of the direction
    Romania is taking remains strongly negative, note the authors of the poll.
    Things are different as far as the perception of Europe is concerned. Compared
    with last year, significantly more Romanians believe things in Europe are
    heading in the right direction.




    Most respondents, namely around 47%,
    believe Europe is heading in the right direction, while 35% believe the
    opposite is true. The proximity of European elections, which are scheduled to
    take place on the 26th of May, Romania’s taking over the presidency
    of the Council of the European Union and the series of events this entails, as
    well as the procedures for the appointment of the future European prosecutor, a
    position for which the former head of the National Anticorruption Directorate
    Laura Codruta Kovesi is a candidate, seem to have improved the perception of
    Europe, the poll has shown.






    The INSCOP poll has measured voting
    intentions two months ahead of the European elections. The main parties on the
    local political scene, the governing Social Democratic Party, and the largest
    opposition party, the National Liberal Party, are neck and neck in this race.
    The Social Democrats are credited with 26.9% of voting intentions and the
    Liberals with 26.3%. Third, with a little over 15%, comes the Alliance 2020 USR
    and PLUS.






    This is the first poll that measures
    voting intentions for this alliance formed by the Save Romania Union, in the
    parliamentary opposition, and PLUS, a party led by the former technocratic
    prime minister Dacian Ciolos. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, the
    junior partner in the ruling coalition, and Pro Romania, the party created by
    the Social Democrat dissidents and led by the former Social Democrat prime
    minister Victor Ponta are credited with some 9%, while the Democratic Union of
    Ethnic Hungarians in Romania with 5%.






    The People’s Movement Party, whose
    most prominent member is the former president Traian Basescu, would not make it
    to the European Parliament. According to INSCOP, the results of the European
    elections will be further influenced by factors that cannot be measured in an
    opinion poll.








    These factors include voter mobilisation,
    impactful events such as also holding a referendum on the day of the vote,
    which is almost certain to happen according to the president, the final
    candidate lists and voter turnout at home and abroad. As compared with
    February, there is a slight increase in the number of eligible voters who say
    they are definitely going to vote, INSCOP also notes.