Radio România Internațional

Tag: Fico

  • May 16, 2024 UPDATE

    May 16, 2024 UPDATE

    VISIT The Romanian foreign minister Luminiţa Odobescu received the Hungarian minister for European affairs, János Bóka, who is visiting Romania, in the run up to Hungary taking over the six-month presidency of the EU Council, on July 1. The European and international context marked by multiple challenges and the transition period between two European electoral cycles were tackled. The Romanian official emphasised the interest in advancing the decisions regarding the EU enlargement policy in relation to Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, as well as those regarding Romania’s accession to Schengen with its land borders too. The Hungarian side reconfirmed its support for the achievement of this goal. As regards the current state of bilateral relations, the importance of the strategic partnership between Romania and Hungary and the opportunities for sectoral cooperation were mentioned.

     

    SHOOTING The Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in intensive care, and his health condition is stable. He underwent several hours of surgery after having been shot in the chest and abdomen on Wednesday, while in a city in the centre of the country, where he had chaired a government meeting. The suspected attacker was detained by the police. According to local media, he is a 71-year-old man, a poet and civic activist. The politicians in power say the attack was politically motivated. Robert Fico is a controversial left-wing politician, accused of pro-Russian sympathies. Returning to power last year, he cancelled military support for Ukraine and announced plans to reform public radio and television, opposed by citizens in street protests. World leaders condemned the attack on the Slovak prime minister, unprecedented in recent European history. Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis said that such extremist acts threaten fundamental European values.

     

    FESTIVAL The city of Craiova (south), is hosting until May 26 the 14th edition of the International Shakespeare Festival. More than 300 world-class theatre performances, concerts, parades, workshops, book launches, installations, VR trips will cover the entire city of Craiova and its surroundings, in conventional spaces, and also in the most original and unexpected places. Shakespeare Village – a British village from the 1600, rebuilt from scratch on the Craiova Hippodrome, will be the venue for dozens of concerts and shows. Famous names in international theatre and performance creators can be found in the festival program, including Robert Wilson, Peter Brook, Declan Donnellan, Robert Lepage, Philip Pârr, Jesus Herrera, and Christian Friedel.

     

    FOOD WASTE The Romanian agriculture ministry Wednesday released for public review a draft resolution aimed at reducing food waste, given that Romania disposes of over 2.5 million tons of food per year. All food operators, prior to destroying foodstuffs past their expiration date, will have to enter annual plans to reduce food waste and annual reports on the amounts of food given away in a dedicated National Platform. According to the European Commission, food loss and food waste increase food insecurity risks and affect the environment, and account for some 16% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the Union’s food system.

     

    GOVERNMENT In Thursday’s Cabinet meeting the government passed a number of road and railway infrastructure investment projects. Over EUR 2.2 bln will be spent on revamping the approx. 150 km Focşani – Roman railway route in the east of the country in the next 3 years, the Romanian PM Marcel Ciolacu said. According to him, a rough EUR 200 mln has been earmarked for the revamping of a 42-km long segment of the A1 Bucharest-Piteşti motorway. A similar amount will be used by the agriculture ministry to support farmers in the poultry and the pig farming sector. Next week the government is to come up with a decision concerning the salary issues notified by the culture ministry with respect to museum personnel around the country, as well as other professional categories, the PM added.

  • October 1, 2023

    October 1, 2023

    ATTACK The
    explosion in front of the Parliament building in Ankara on Sunday morning was a
    terror attack, the Turkish Interior Ministry has announced. Two terrorists
    came with a light commercial vehicle in front of the entrance gate of the
    General Directorate of Security of our Ministry of Internal Affairs and carried
    out a bomb attack the Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya says adding that
    two policemen have been wounded. According to the same sources, one of the
    terrorists blew himself up and the other was neutralized. According to the
    Turkish media, several ministries and the building of Parliament are located in
    the aforementioned district. The country’s president Recep Erdogan was set to
    attend the opening of Parliament’s new session at 7 hours local time.






    BRATISLAVA Former Prime Minister Robert Fico and his populist, leftist
    party, SMER-SD have won the early Parliament election in Slovakia after 99.9%
    of the votes cast on Saturday were counted. The result contradicts the exit
    polls, which indicated the victory of the pro-European Progressive Slovakia.
    SMER-SD, which promoted anti-NATO and EU messages during their campaign and
    pledged to cut the military support given to Ukraine, has mustered 23.3% of the
    votes, 6% more than the Progressive Slovakia. Radio Romania correspondent in
    Slovakia says that a coalition is envisaged involving SMER, Hlas, which is a
    splinter group from Fico’s party and the Christian-Democrats, which together
    have most of the Parliament seats. Robert Fico was forced to step down in 2018
    amid protests caused by the killing of an investigative journalist.






    ART Almost
    100 works of art by Romania’s famous sculptor Constantin Brancusi are on
    display as of Saturday in Timisoara, western Romania, in the most important
    exhibition dedicated to this major artist in the past half a century. The
    exhibition includes sculptures, photos, archive documents and film footages on
    display at the local National Art Museum until late January. The exhibits’
    total insured value stays around half a billion euros. Under the suggestive
    title, Brancusi, Romanian sources and universal prospects the exhibition
    invites the public to explore the way in which Brancusi managed to cross all
    geographic, historical, formal and gender borders in order to ensure that
    special place unattached to any artistic current. The exhibition has on view a
    series of artefacts borrowed from the National Museum of Modern Art, Pompidou
    Center, in Paris, the Tate Gallery in London, the Guggenheim Foundation, the
    National Art Museum in Bucharest, the Art Museum in Craiova and some private
    collections. Among the famous artefacts visitors can admire in Timisoara, there
    is the Bird in Space, the Kiss, Mademoiselle Pogany or Sleeping Muse. The
    aforementioned exhibition is part of the programme Timisoara – European Capital
    of Culture.


    RUGBY Romania’s
    national rugby side lost their third game in group B of the World Cup in
    France. On Saturday in Lille, our rugby side came a cropper in their match
    against Scotland 0-84, the most dramatic defeat in its history. Our players
    have so far lost to world leader Ireland and the en-titre champions South
    Africa and will be playing their last game against Tonga on October 8.






    WEATHER The
    weather is incredibly warm for this time of the year, especially in Romania’s
    southern and south-eastern regions. Showers have been reported in the north,
    center and east and also in the mountains. The highs of the day are ranging
    between 18 and 30 degrees with a noon reading in Bucharest of 30 degrees
    Celsius.




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