Radio România Internațional

Tag: European Parliament election campaign

  • May 7, 2019 UPDATE

    May 7, 2019 UPDATE

    EXTREME WEATHER – 15,000 firefighters, police officers and
    gendarmes are deployed nationwide to deal with the effects of the extreme
    weather, the Interior Ministry reports. A code yellow alert against heavy rain
    and extreme weather phenomena is in place until Wednesday morning. Hydrologists
    have also issued a code orange alert against floods for the west and a code yellow
    flood alert for the northwest and the east. Hundreds of households as well as
    national and county roads were flooded. Several villages were cut off from the
    power grid.




    DEBATE – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and
    Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday are attending a debate on the
    future of Europe hosted by Sibiu. The debate comes ahead the EU Summit
    scheduled for Thursday and Friday on the sidelines of the Romanian Presidency
    of the Council of the European Union. European Council President Donald Tusk
    has called on EU heads of state and government to adopt the Declaration of
    Sibiu, whereby the EU will convey a message of unity and trust.




    ELECTION CAMPAIGN – The campaign for the European Parliament
    election continues in Romania. 13 political factions are enrolled in the race:
    the Social-Democratic Party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, the
    Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, the National Liberal Party, the Save
    Romania Union-Plus alliance, the People’s Movement Party, the Pro Romania
    Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania, the National Unity Bloc,
    the United Romania Party, the PRODEMO Party, the Romanian Socialist Party and
    the Independent Social-Democratic Party. 3 independent members are also
    enrolled in the race. Romania will have 33 seats in the European Parliament.
    The 33rd mandate will be announced only after Great Britain
    withdraws from the community bloc. 441 voting polls have been set up for
    Romanians abroad, most of which in Italy, Spain and the Republic of Moldova. A
    justice referendum will also be held on May 26.




    POPE FRANCIS – Pope Francis on Tuesday continued his tour of the
    Balkans by visiting North Macedonia. The Pope prayed at the monument devoted to
    Mother Theresa, built over the ruins of the church where Mother Theresa was
    baptized in 1910. Hundreds of thousands of people have enrolled online to take
    part in the masses celebrated by the Pope in Romania. The list includes
    Christians from Hungary, Serbia, Ukraine, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa,
    Nigeria, Madagascar, Australia, Israel, Canada, Namibia and Reunion. Over May
    31 – June 2 the Pope is paying an apostolic visit to Romania under the motto
    Let’s go together. Pope Francis will visit Bucharest, Iasi, currently hosting
    the biggest Roman-Catholic community in Romania, Blaj, where he will beatify
    seven Greek-Catholic bishops who died in communist prisons, as well as the
    Marian Shrine in Sumuleu Ciuc. We recall Pope John Paul II visited Romania in 1999,
    the first visit ever paid to a country with an Orthodox majority population.




    INVESTIGATION – Three teenagers are the main
    suspects of the investigation into the ransacking of the Jewish Cemetery in
    Husi. The young men admitted their accusations, claiming they were inspired by
    martial arts films and wanted to practice karate. Aged 15 and 16, the three were
    not detained, but risk prison time for aggravated criminal damage. The
    President at the time condemned their actions, calling on the relevant authorities
    to firmly sanction any anti-Semitic actions. The Government in turn reiterated
    its commitment to combat anti-Semitism and any form of racism, intolerance and
    xenophobia.




    SENTENCE – The Bucharest Court of Appeal on
    Tuesday sentenced the former head of the National Fiscal Administration, Sorin
    Blejnar, to five years in prison for influence peddling. The decision is final.
    In the court of first instance, Blejnar had received six years from the
    Bucharest Tribunal. Court judges maintained the decision to seize some 3
    million euros from Blejnar and impose a distraint on his assets pending the
    recovery of the sum. Anticorruption prosecutors say Blejnar received the money
    from a businessman as payment to help him win several contracts with the
    National Fiscal Administration.






    TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Simona Halep,
    world no. 3, has advanced to the round of 16 at the Mutua Madrid Open in Spain,
    totaling some 7 million dollars in prize money. On Tuesday Halep eased past
    Great Britain’s Johanna Konta, 7-5, 6-1. In the next round Halep will take on
    Viktoria Kuzmova (46 WTA). Aged 27, Halep won the Madrid Open in 2016 and 2017.
    Halep also qualified to the round of 16 in the women’s doubles together with
    Irina Begu, where they will play Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova of
    the Czech Republic on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, another Romanian, Horia
    Tecau together with Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands will play Kyle Edmund
    and Neal Skupski of Great Britain. Tecau and Rojer were winners in 2016 in
    Madrid.


    (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • April 25, 2019 UPDATE

    April 25, 2019 UPDATE

    REFERENDUM – President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday signed the decree
    on the organization of a referendum concurrently with the European Parliament
    election on May 26. The two questions will be: Do you agree with forbidding
    amnesty and pardons for corruption-related offences? Do you agree with
    forbidding the Government to pass emergency decrees in the field of corruption
    crimes, correlated with extending the right to challenge emergency decrees at
    the Constitutional Court? In a press conference the president urged Romanians
    to vote in the referendum, saying its result will count. Klaus Iohannis also
    said the referendum is of major importance and could change Romania. The
    President’s undertaking comes amidst numerous legislative changes in the
    judiciary promoted by the ruling coalition, which have sparked controversy and
    attracted criticism from Romania’s European partners.




    CAMPAIGN – The campaign for the European
    Parliament election is to kick off on Saturday and end on May 25. Bucharest
    will send to Brussels 33 MEPs, one more than before if Britain is going to
    leave the bloc. Former prime ministers, a president, several ministers, MEPs
    and mayors are among the candidates. Romania’s number one ruling party the
    Social-Democratic Party is favorite in the election race together with the main
    opposition party the National Liberal Party. They are followed by the
    opposition Save Romania-Plus alliance and ProRomania party as well as by the
    Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, also part of the country’s ruling
    coalition. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and the People’s Movement
    Party also stand chances to win seats in the European Parliament.




    JUDICIARY – A delegation of the Venice
    Commission on Thursday met in Bucharest with representatives of Parliament’s
    special committee on the justice laws to discuss the emergency decrees in the
    field. The president of the committee, Social-Democrat Robert Cazanciuc, said
    at the end of the meeting that he explained to the commission the decrees were
    passed to solve certain deadlocks. In turn, the Save Romania Union in
    opposition said Commission representatives warned that passing emergency
    decrees could bring new emergencies and the fact that the government is
    circumventing Parliament debate is a very serious matter that should not be
    tolerated. During his meeting with the Venice Commission on Wednesday,
    President Iohannis said the law modifying the criminal codes passed by
    Parliament is a detrimental way of passing legislation that creates instability
    in the system. The European Commission has announced it would closely analyze
    the modifications, insisting Romania must immediately resume its efforts to
    reform the judiciary.




    POPE FRANCIS -The Holy See has published a detailed schedule of Pope Francis’
    visit to Romania. The Pontiff is due to arrive in Romania on May 31st
    and to be meeting president Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila,
    representatives of civil society and the diplomatic corps. The Pope is expected
    to meet Romanian patriarch Daniel and deliver a speech in front of the
    Permanent Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Pope Francis and Patriarch
    Daniel will be praying together in the People’s Salvation Cathedral. The Pope’s
    first day in Romania will end with a mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in
    Bucharest. On June 1st the Pope will celebrate a mass at Sumuleu
    Ciuc, central Romania, and will next go to Iasi, in northern Romania for a
    visit to the local cathedral and a speech at the Palace of Culture Family and
    Youth. On June 2nd in Blaj, Pope Francis will deliver a mass and
    beatify seven martyr bishops and meet the local Roma community. The Pontiff
    will next go to Sibiu in central Romania and board a plane to Rome. Over 110
    thousand people have enlisted to participate in the mass at Sumuleu Ciuc. The
    list includes Roman-Catholic believers from all over the world.




    EUROBAROMETER – Less than 35% of Europeans
    were aware in February that the European Parliament election would be held in
    May, the Spring Eurobarometer shows. According to the study, most EU citizens
    support their countries’ EU membership. 68% of respondents said they benefited
    from EU membership overall, tantamount to the highest response rate in 1983.
    61% of respondents said EU membership is a good thing. The survey reveals
    citizens’ uncertainty is on the wane, also due to the amount of challenges the
    EU has faced in recent years. On the other hand, half of EU citizens believe
    things are headed in the wrong direction, either in the EU or in their home
    country. Half of citizens also believe their voice doesn’t matter at EU level,
    the study also shows.


    (Translated by V. Palcu)