Tag: gold helmet

  • The Week in Review (03-07.02.2025)

    The Week in Review (03-07.02.2025)

    The 2025 budget, adopted

    Romania’s state and social security budgets were adopted on February 6 by the Bucharest Parliament, shortly after being greenlit by the expert committees. The budget is built on an economic growth rate of 2.5% and a deficit of 7% of GDP. Last year, the deficit was close to 9%, prompting the new PSD – PNL – UDMR ruling coalition to make efforts for its gradual reduction. The government has promised that investments will not be affected by the budget rebalancing. According to the finance minister, Tánczos Barna, conditions are met to support the country’s development through record investments and to ensure the financial resources for the payment of salaries and pensions and the protection of the vulnerable categories. The opposition USR criticized the new budget provisions, for what they see as overestimation of income, indebtedness of Romanians through the measures adopted and the elimination of some tax facilities.

     

     

    Huge real estate scam with political overtones

    The vote on the state budget was not the only important event that took place on Wednesday, in Parliament. Representatives of both opposition groups in Parliament, the pro-Europeans and the sovereigntists, loudly demanded the resignation of the Social-Democratic prime minister Marcel Ciolacu. The reason is the insufficiently clarified connections which he allegedly has with the former Social Democratic MP Laura Vicol, who headed the Chamber of Deputies’ legal committee for four years, and with her husband, Vladimir Ciorbă. The Prosecutor’s Office accuses the two of having developed a financial scam through which they collected from clients, individuals and legal entities, over 195 million euros, without delivering the apartments and parking lots which their clients had paid for. The Vicol-Ciorbă couple and three other people with positions within the Nordis group of companies have been arrested this week after extensive searches carried out in Romania and abroad. The investigation targets 40 individuals and 32 companies. According to investigators, there were also cases of the same apartment being sold to different clients. The prosecutor’s office seized hundreds of apartments and houses, commercial spaces, land, cars and shares and blocked dozens of bank accounts of the individuals and companies involved. The tax office announced an internal control, after prosecutors claimed that four of its inspectors could be charged with favoring the criminal. The latter allegedly took no measures against the Nordis group, although they had already discovered irregularities three years ago. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who traveled on planes rented by Nordis, claims that he paid for his flights himself. He is not being accused of any crime, but his image is tainted by his presence, alongside other PSD leaders, in the company of such people.

     

    A new attempt to suspend the president

    Prime Minister Ciolacu is not the only one whose resignation is being requested. One of the three sovereigntist parties in the Romanian Parliament on Wednesday submitted a new request, the third, for the suspension of President Klaus Iohannis. The previous request had been rejected by the Permanent Bureaus. The new request is also signed by the Save Romanian Union (USR) whose members said they would vote for it if it reached the plenary session. The opposition claims that the presence of Iohannis at the helm of the state is illegitimate. However, Iohannis repeatedly ruled out the option of his resignation, arguing that the Constitution requires him to remain in office until the future president is sworn in. Iohannis remained in office although his second and last term expired on December 21, after the Constitutional Court annulled last year’s presidential election. A new vote will take place on May 4 and 18. The former liberal leader Crin Antonescu will also enter the race for the supreme office. Last Sunday he received the validation as a joint candidate of the coalition government (PSD-PNL-UDMR) also from the social democrats, after he had previously been confirmed by the liberals and ethnic Hungarians.

     

    Again, about the theft of the Dacian treasure pieces

    The prime minister’s control body has found deficiencies or legislative gaps in terms of protecting the cultural heritage, and failures of compliance with the legal framework that regulates the temporary export of classified movable cultural assets. This is the result of checks undertaken in relation to the conditions in which some of the artefacts from the Dacian treasure were exhibited in the Dutch Drents Museum in Assen. The control body also found that the security and anti-burglary security measures and conditions proposed by the foreign entities to which the assets were lent were not analyzed by specialists. Four of the most important artefacts from Romania’s national heritage have been recently stolen from the Drents Museum in the Dutch city of Assen, namely the gold helmet from Coţofeneşti, dating from the period between the 5th and 4th centuries before Christ, as well as three Dacian gold bracelets from Sarmizegetusa Regia, from the second half of the first century before Christ. The pieces, of inestimable historical value, were part of the Exhibition “Dacia – The Kingdom of Gold and Silver” which opened on July 7, 2024 and was to be closed on January 25.

     

    Retirement of a great champion

    “My body can no longer sustain the effort it takes to get back to where I once was, and I know what that requires.” This is how Simona Halep, the most valuable tennis player in the history of Romania, with the most titles, explained her retirement. The announcement was made on Tuesday, almost a year after returning to professional competitions, which she had been banned from due to doping allegations. Simona Halep was in first place in the WTA ranking for 64 weeks. Her record includes two Grand Slam titles – Roland Garros and Wimbledon – as well as three other finals played, two at Roland Garros and one at the Australian Open. She has won 24 titles and won more than 40 million dollars from tennis, being third on the all-time list of WTA earners, behind Serena and Venus Williams. (EE, LS)

  • January 29, 2025

    January 29, 2025

    Budget – The leaders of the governing coalition in Bucharest are again discussing today the draft budget for 2025. These are the last calculations regarding the distribution of the state money, before the draft budget law reaches the government on Friday for adoption and Parliament next week for the vote. The largest amounts will be allocated for the payment of pensions and for the continuation of investments, while the expenses for goods, salaries and services will be reduced in all ministries and institutions, according to the finance minister. The intention is to allocate budgets to the ministries reduced by 5% compared to last year, except for the Health, Interior, Education, Transport and National Defense ministries. Investments will exceed 7% of the GDP to support economic growth and the country’s development. In the field of agriculture, the priorities remain supporting the development of the animal husbandry sector, the continuation of the INVESTALIM program and the financing of irrigation systems. The Economy Ministry will continue the massive support for entrepreneurs through the Start-up Nation and Construct Plus programs, and the defense industry will receive over 2% of the GDP this year as well. The Transport Ministry will also continue the investments, as in the previous years, which will materialize in highways, express roads and the improvement of the national road network.

     

    Theft – New information appears around the treasure pieces belonging to Romania stolen on the night of Friday to Saturday from a museum in the Netherlands. The Dutch police announced that they had elements that show that several burglary suspects come from a province in the northwest of the Netherlands. The Dutch authorities also specify that extensive technical and tactical research has been carried out in the museum and its surroundings, and a team made up of dozens of investigators and specialists is working on the case to arrest the thieves and recover the assets. The stolen pieces are the gold helmet from Coţofeneşti and three Dacian bracelets from Sarmizegetusa Regia, Romanian heritage objects which are also essential parts of the history and identity of the Romanian people, an invaluable cultural heritage not only for Romania, but for the whole world, states the Romanian Culture Minister, Natalia Intotero. The minister dismissed the director of the National History Museum of Romania, Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu, whom she criticized for the way in which he communicated publicly and institutionally in the case of the theft of the treasure objects. We remind you that the History Museum is the one that sent the artefacts to the exhibition in the Netherlands.

     

    Iuliu Hossu – The Romanian Academy inaugurated on Wednesday the ‘Cardinal Iuliu Hossu Year’, through a tribute ceremony. 2025 was established ‘Cardinal Iuliu Hossu Year’ by law, to celebrate his life, work, personality, martyrdom, the determining role in the making of the Great Union and the efforts he made to save the Jews during the Holocaust. A brilliant Transylvanian intellectual, Cardinal Iuliu Hossu left a mark on Romania’s history. He was arrested and imprisoned in communist prisons following his refusal to renounce the Greek-Catholic faith and his activity in defense of the Greek-Catholic believers. President Klaus Iohannis sent a message on the occasion of the Tribute Ceremony Cardinal Iuliu Hossu Year’ in which he recalls the words spoken by the cardinal – ‘Our faith is our life!’ – and said that these words could become a strong call to civic consciousness, to unity and courage, to solidarity with fellow citizens and the future of the country.

     

    Football – Manchester United will arrive in Bucharest this evening for Thursday’s match against the Romanian football champions, FCSB, held in the eighth and last stage of the main phase of the Europa League. The famous English team holds the fourth place in the ranking, with 15 points, and FCSB is ranked 8th with 14 points. The first eight teams qualify directly for the round of 16, and the teams in positions 9 to 24 play a play-off (round-return) for access to the round of 16.

     

    Resignation – The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić (Vucici), said that he would decide in the next ten days whether he would call parliamentary elections or form a new government. The Prime Minister Miloą Vučević (Miloş Vucevici) resigned on Tuesday, after several months of anti-government protests. The rallies were triggered by the collapse of the roof of a newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city, which killed 15 people. The protesters blamed the fatal accident on the corruption and negligence of the authorities and asked for the publication of all documents related to the construction and for the punishment of the culprits. The outgoing Prime Minister Vučević, a close ally of the president, was the mayor of Novi Sad when the works began.

     

    Elections – The governing coalition (PSD-PNL-UDMR) in Bucharest adopted, on Tuesday, a decision that set the electoral calendar in the run up to the first round of the presidential election on May 4. The electoral period will start on February 18, and the deadline for submitting candidacies to the Central Electoral Bureau will be March 15. The election campaign will start on April 4 and end in the morning of May 3. Voting in Romania will take place on May 4, and abroad, in the 950 organized sections, for three days – May 2, 3 and 4. The Romanian voters abroad have the possibility to vote by mail, by registering on the portal www.votstrainatate.ro.

     

    Talks – The Romanian Foreign Minister, Emil Hurezeanu, discussed with the executive vice-president of the European Commission, responsible for social rights and skills, quality jobs and training, Roxana Mînzatu, about a series of important files in relation to the current European agenda. They addressed topics such as maintaining support for the EU enlargement process, continuing support for Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, developing a strategic vision for the Black Sea. They also discussed the promotion of convergence and cohesion objectives in the negotiations on the future Multiannual Financial Framework post-2027 or the consolidation of European action in the field of defense. The Romanian official attended the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels and met with the NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte.  (LS)

  • Reactions after the theft in the Netherlands

    Reactions after the theft in the Netherlands

    Four of the most important artefacts from Romania’s national heritage were stolen from the Drents Museum in the Dutch city of Assen. They include the gold helmet from Coţofeneşti, which dates from the 5th and 4th centuries before Christ, as well as three Dacian gold bracelets from Sarmizegetusa Regia, from the second part of the first century before Christ. The pieces, of inestimable historical value, were part of the Exhibition “Dacia – The Kingdom of Gold and Silver” which opened on July 7, 2024 and was to be closed on January 25. The robbery took place on Friday night to Saturday, when four people used an explosive device to enter the museum premises, stole only the Romanian artefacts and fled in a car. Later, they set the car on fire to hide their tracks. The Dutch police do not rule out that Romanians were also involved in the robbery and are investigating the possibility that they fled to Germany.

     

    The four stolen assets are part of the collection of the National History Museum of Romania and were the most valuable in the exhibition. All exhibited objects had been insured for 30 million Euros before being sent abroad, in accordance with Romanian and international legislation. Both the space and the showcases in which the heritage objects were displayed were secured and had surveillance systems installed, as well as alarm systems connected to the local police. In Bucharest, the General Prosecutor’s Office announced that an ex officio criminal file was opened in this case, and the investigations will be carried out by prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice and by specialists from the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police. At the same time, a crisis cell was created at the Romanian government, and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that the recovery of the helmet and the three Dacian bracelets is a priority.

     

    In turn, the Romanian Energy Minister, Sebastian Burduja, said that the theft of the Dacian treasure is an international shame and that it should be found out whether this robbery was possibly orchestrated to manipulate the nationalist trend ahead of the presidential election in Romania due in May. The prime minister’s control body is verifying at the Ministry of Culture the documents underlying the sending of objects from the national treasury to that exhibition, and the relevant minister, Natalia Intotero, will meet with the royal family and the prime minister of the Netherlands, Dick Schoof. Also, the Interior Minister, Cătălin Predoiu, announced that a team of Romanian criminologist police officers will urgently join their Dutch colleagues to help in the investigation and that the Romanian authorities maintain permanent contact with the Dutch and European ones. The Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, had an exchange of messages with Prime Minister Dick Schoof, who has given assurances that the Dutch authorities are taking all the necessary steps to identify the perpetrators and recover the treasure. (LS)