Radio România Internațional

Tag: Elena Lasconi

  • Protests and preparations for the presidential election

    Protests and preparations for the presidential election

    The ruling coalition in Romania made up of the PSD-PNL-UDMR last week decided that the presidential election be held on May 4th and 18th. The Executive in Bucharest is now preparing the documents needed for making these dates official. The country’s Social-Democratic Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, says there is obviously a huge public expectation related to the date of the presidential election. However, the people in the street have conveyed a more radical message: the Constitutional Court cancelled the first round of voting in an unjustified manner and should now re-think the ruling it made on December 6th.

    Such a review appeal was made by the lawyers of the independent candidate, Călin Georgescu, a pro-Russia extremist, who unexpectedly emerged as winner of the first presidential round held on November 24th. The moment of the appeal registration was accompanied by an unauthorized protest staged by thousands of Georgescu’s supporters.

    The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), the flagship party of the sovereignist trio in the Romanian Parliament, staged a large-scale protest in Bucharest, during which people from all over the country called for the resumption of the second round of the presidential election and the sacking of president Klaus Iohannis.

    ‘The Meeting for Democracy’, as it was titled, also included a march between the government and presidential buildings.

    “In a normal Romania, at the end of this day, the illegal resident of the Cotroceni Palace, Klaus Werner Iohannis, will announce his resignation and we’ll rejoin the institutional framework so that we may be able to observe the will of the Romanian people”, the AUR leader, George Simion says. According to him, the protests will continue until all the protesters’ claims are met, and thousands of people will take to the streets on January 24th, when we celebrate the Union of the Romanian Principalities. The USR president, Elena Lasconi, who also qualified for the presidential race together with Georgescu, says that she understands the Romanians who took to the streets in order to point out to the Constitutional Court, quote, ‘the fact that it used its power discriminately’. She says the solution is neither in the street, nor on social networks, though.

    In her opinion, it would be normal for president Iohannis to step down and let the head of the Senate take over the country’s leadership as an interim.

    We recall the CCR cancelled the presidential election in November-December last year, after the country’s Higher Defence Council had published a report on foreign interferences in the election process that favoured Georgescu and the alleged illegal funding of his campaign.

    However, the facts, on which the Court based its unprecedented ruling, have not been confirmed by legal investigations yet, which casts a question mark upon its decision. As a result Klaus Iohannis is still Romania’s president, although he finished its second and last mandate on December 21.

    (bill)

     

  • December 7, 2024 UPDATE

    December 7, 2024 UPDATE

    ELECTION Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Saturday announced he held talks with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the two agreed that social media security must be strengthened upon the election in Romania. The talks came after the Romanian Central Election Office had implemented the Friday’s ruling of the country’s Constitutional Court (CCR) on cancelling the entire voting process in the presidential runoffs. According to the head of the Permanent election Authority, Tony Grebla, voting operations have frozen in all polling stations abroad as well as any preparations in the country. Upon the first round of the presidential election on November 24, the runoffs were scheduled for December 8. The voting had already kicked off abroad, where the Romanian nationals were allowed to cast their ballots for three days. In the meantime, the CCR has motivated its decision on cancelling the results of the first round. The magistrates say that after the de-classification of some documents in the country’s Higher Defence Council, they noticed that the entire election process was affected. The court believes the transparent and equitable character of the election campaign has been affected and that the legal regulations on its funding have been ignored. According to the same sources, the candidate who won the first round of the election, the independent Calin Georgescu, benefitted from an aggressive campaign, which violates the national election law through the abusive employment of the social media algorithms and the lack of specific elements of election advertising.

     

    SEARCHES Prosecutors and policemen in Bucharest and other Romanian counties have conducted a series of large-scale search operations on the alleged illegal funding of the election campaign for the independent candidate Calin Georgescu as well as the online behaviour of several citizens active on social networks. The anti-mafia department DIICOT has opened an in-rem criminal file on Calin Georgescu’s campaign regarding the illegal use of IT programmes and the attempt of disturbing the good functioning of IT systems and the attempted illegal access to an IT system. In a communiqué the DIICOT explains these aren’t accusations but the mere framework for evidence gathering and assessment of facts which may lead to a legal and solid resolution.

     

    APPEAL The United States has made an appeal to all the Romanian political parties to ensure the country’s constitutional order and get involved in a peaceful democratic process without violence and intimidation, to reflect the people’s democratic will. The Department of State says in a communiqué that the Romanians are the only ones to express their will not any other country or foreign players. The USA says it was notified by the Constitutional Court ruling over the election in Romania and reiterates its trust in the Romanian institutions and democratic processes including in the investigations concerning any possible interferences in the election process. Parliament parties in Romania have hailed the CCR decision but called for an investigation into any possible interference in the country’s election process. Elena Lasconi, who ranked second in the first round of the election, says the Romanian state stomped on democracy and the election should have been allowed to go on in observance of the peoples’ will. Independent candidate Calin Georgescu has also lashed out at court’s decision, which he described as an officialised coup de etat. Georgescu says that the CCR judges have altered democracy and the country’s legal system is subordinated to the political class.

     

    TENNIS Romania has qualified for the semifinals of the World Table Tennis Cup after winning 8-5 against Germany and losing 8-0 to China in the competition’s second stage in Chengdu. The semifinals and finals will be taking place on Sunday. Romania will be playing China in the semis, while South Korea will be up against Hong Kong. Romania was unable to make it to the competition’s second stage last year.

    (bill)

  • December 7, 2024

    December 7, 2024

    ELECTION The Romanian Central Election Office has applied the Friday’s ruling of the country’s Constitutional Court on cancelling the entire voting process in the presidential runoffs. The head of the Permanent election Authority, Tony Grebla, says that all voting operations have been frozen in all the polling stations abroad as well as the preparations in the country. After the first round of the presidential election on November 24, the runoffs have been scheduled for December 8. The voting already started abroad, where the Romanian nationals were allowed to cast their ballots for three days. In the meantime, the CCR has motivated its decision on cancelling the results of the first round. The magistrates say that after the de-classification of some documents in the country’s Higher Defence Council, they noticed that the entire election process was affected. The court says that the transparent and equitable character of the election campaign has been affected and that the legal regulations on its funding have been ignored. According to the same sources, the candidate who won the first round of the election, the independent Calin Georgescu, benefitted from an aggressive campaign, which violates the national election law through the abusive employment of the social media algorithms and the lack of specific elements of election advertising.

     

     SEARCHES Prosecutors and policemen in Bucharest and other Romanian counties are conducting large-scale search operations on the alleged illegal funding of the election campaign for the independent candidate Calin Georgescu as well as the online behaviour of several citizens active on social networks. The anti-mafia department DIICOT has opened an in-rem criminal file on Calin Georgescu’s campaign regarding the illegal use of IT programmes and the attempt of disturbing the good functioning of IT systems and the attempted illegal access to an IT system. In a communiqué the DIICOT explains these aren’t accusations but the mere framework for evidence gathering and assessment of facts which may lead to a legal and solid resolution.

      

    APPEAL The United States has made an appeal to all the Romanian political parties to ensure the country’s constitutional order and get involved in a peaceful democratic process without violence and intimidation, to reflect the people’s democratic will. The Department of State says in a communiqué that the Romanians are the ones to express their will not any other country or foreign players. The USA says it was notified by the Constitutional Court ruling over the election in Romania and reiterates its trust in the Romanian institutions and democratic processes including in the investigations concerning any possible interferences in the election process. Parliament parties in Romania have hailed the CCR decision but called for an investigation into any possible interference in the country’s election process. Elena Lasconi, who ranked second in the first round of the election, says the Romanian state stomped on democracy and the election should have been allowed to go on in observance of the peoples’ will. Independent candidate Calin Georgescu has also lashed out at court’s decision, which he described as an officialised coup de etat. Georgescu says that the CCR judges have altered democracy and the country’s legal system is subordinated to the political class.

    (bill)

  • Changes on the Romanian political scene

    Changes on the Romanian political scene

    On June 9, the Social-Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL), the biggest political parties and coalition partners, won the European parliamentary election by a landslide, after fielding candidates on a single list. Then, in the local election, both parties fared honorably, with the Social-Democrats securing most of the town halls and county councils. Nothing foretold the electoral disaster sustained by the PSD and PNL candidates in the first round of the presidential election. The Liberal and Social-Democrat presidential candidates have tied their names to two historic failures: the leader of PNL, Nicolae Ciucă, ranked fifth with less than 9%, thus becoming the first Liberal candidate not to obtain a two-digit score, while the leader of PSD, Marcel Ciolacu, seen as favorite to win the first round, came only third, with 19%, becoming the first left-wing candidate not to advance to the presidential runoff. Both owned up to their failure and resigned from the leadership of their parties.

     

    On December 1, in-between the two rounds of the presidential election, the parliamentary election is scheduled, and the main parties must quickly recover from the electoral shock. PSD seeks to regain the trust of Romanians in the parliamentary election and will come up with a new approach for communicating with citizens, said the vice-president of the party and the European Parliament, Victor Negrescu, appointed to deal with political communication until the parliamentary election. A strong representation of Social-Democratic values ​​is needed in the future Parliament, Victor Negrescu said, arguing that PSD will intensify its efforts to better explain their governing program to the Romanian people. “We have good results in terms of governance and, in this respect, we will also come up with a new approach in the way we communicate with citizens, more directly, more openly, we will them what we are able and want to do in a very direct and honest approach”, Negrescu added.

     

    The entire leadership of the Liberal Party resigned, and Ilie Bolojan was appointed interim president. Bolojan is known for his good administrative and economic results in Bihor County (northwest) and in the municipality of Oradea. Ilie Bolojan announced that PNL will support Romania’s pro-European direction and center-right policies, which is why in the second round the party will unequivocally support Elena Lasconi, the leader of the Save Romania Union. We recall that, in the presidential runoff slated for December 8, Elena Lasconi will face the surprising winner of the first round, Călin Georgescu, a figure unanimously considered toxic and dangerous due to his extremist and pro-Russian views. Over the coming period, Bolojan pointed out, the Liberals will present the public policies that PNL will support in Parliament: state efficiency and waste reduction, public policies that allow the development of local communities through decentralization and support programs addressing local officials, policies that support the rule of law, an independent justice system and policies related to equity, meritocracy and rules that generate fair behaviors at society level. (VP)