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  • Politician Barbu Alexandru Știrbei

    Politician Barbu Alexandru Știrbei

    The Știrbei family was one of the most important boyar families in the principality of Wallachia in the 19th century. Its most prominent members were prince Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei, who ruled Wallachia between 1849 and 1853 and again between 1854 and 1856, and his grandson, Barbu Alexandru Știrbei, a diplomat and politician who enjoyed a successful career at the highest level during the rule of King Ferdinand I.



    Prince Știrbei was born in 1872 in Buftea, north-west of Bucharest. He was a rich man, owning, apart from the estate in Buftea, three other large properties in the counties of Olt, Teleorman and Iași. He sat on the boards of many banks and factories, such as Steaua Română, the Reșita factories and Astra. He died in Bucharest in 1946, aged 73.



    Brought up and schooled in France, he left a good impression on those who met him. He was presentable, articulate and was always dressed after the English fashion. He became close friends with prince and heir to the throne Ferdinand, and in 1914, when Ferdinand became king, he became his personal advisor. Prince Știrbei also became close to queen Marie, and historical records show they were more than just friends.



    Cătălin Strat edited a book entitled I love you, my Marie. Scrisorile lui Barbu Știrbei către Regina Maria [“I love you, my Marie. Barbu Știrbeis letters to Queen Marie”]. He says beyond his love relationship with Marie, Știrbei was a true pillar of the Romanian state:



    “I think he was a kind of guardian angel of the dynasty and the Crown. On the one hand, he was accused of embezzlement, on the other he did everything he could to protect the king and the queen. He was a very interesting figure and knew how to cultivate ties that were useful for Romanian politics and Romanian interests. He was the grey eminence who in the first world war masterminded all the big projects of the war and after the union of 1918. He made a good team with Ionel Brătianu, who was his brother-in-law.”





    A prince by birth, Știrbei was aware of his position and of the times he lived in. During World War One, jointly with Ion I. C. Brătianu, arguably Romanias greatest politician, Stirbey had the intuition of the direction history was taking, that of opening towards political life and to the peasant class. Accordingly, he would mastermind the new agrarian reform he himself would feel the pinch of, a reform King Ferdinand presented to the Romanian soldiers who were in trenches in front of enemy lines.



    Catalin Strat once again:



    “He was a smart man and knew he could not go against the direction history was taking. Even though he was a conservative politician, and that, not through political commitment, even though he used to be a deputy of the conservatives, but rather as a personal option, he had democratic ideas about agriculture, about industry, about finance. He knew a perpetuation of the outmoded social, political and economic model was not something good for the country. Therefore, he consented to that kind of sacrifice his and those of his class made, that of putting World War One soldiers in possession of land. It was a move everyone praised him for. They say the speech in Racaciuni, given by King Ferdinand but created and written by Barbu Stirbei and Ionel Bratianu gave a fresh impetus to the Romanian troops on the Moldavian front.”



    The history-made-easy books mentioned Barbu Stirbei mainly to highlight the love affair he had with Queen Marie. Cătălin Strat was keen on touching upon that :



    “Princess Marie, at the age of 17, found herself somehow exiled in a country that had barely emerged from a Oriental universe and which was rapidly trying to become European, and modernize itself .Destined to her was a prince who was not necessarily handsome, who was not necessarily strong, personality-wise. She was getting bored and, being very young, she set her eyes on someone else as well. It seems that the affair with Barbu Stirbei was the most important of the affairs she had. The Romanian society tolerated the queens extra-conjugal affairs, also tolerating the affair she had with Barbu Stirbei. No one had anything against it, actually, mention was never made, save for Argetoianu, that the two had a love affair. There were only innuendos, hints and notes in memoirs and diaries, especially in the diaries of the ladies-in-waiting, who were anything but discreet, or in the notes of the court servants, who, again, were anything but discreet. “



    The volume “I love you, my Marie” is much more than the title can encompass. Apparently, it includes part of the correspondence of two lovers, who belonged to the high-ranking power circles in Bucharest. The volume gives a landmark of Romanian politics the place he fully deserves.

  • Humorist Cilibi Moise

    Humorist Cilibi Moise


    Humor is a human trait, in its very essence. Humor has for long been described and analyzed by literary theorists, philosophers, moralists, psychologists, theologians, sociologists, anthropologists. Being admittedly universal, humor is at once something typical for certain groups of people, larger or smaller, for certain nations or countries. Humor is, just as those who studied it would put it, a cultural characteristic of a certain space.



    Practically, in the Romanian space, humor could be traced ever since this space has been inhabited by human beings. Notwithstanding, the written history of Romanian humor, with documents conveying the spirit of the age to posterity, can only be read from the second half of the 19th century, being closely connected to the publication of satire and humor magazines. In the history of Romanian humor, we can also find names of people who made the others laugh, people who would be remembered by their contemporaries by their funny words, gestures and attitudes.



    One such name of Romanian humor in the 19th century was that of the legendary Cilibi Moise, whose personality is better known from what the others said about him, rather than from his own personal notes or archive documents.



    Eugen Istodor specializes in the history of humor press. Istodor himself was a columnist for the Catavencu Academy humor magazine, issued in 1991. In his articles and studies, Istodor also wrote about Cilibi Moise, our hero today.



    How are we to understand humor ? How can we perceive it in the Romanian space ? So here I am in front of Cilibi Moise, the humblest of our great humorists. Why humble? A string of questions arises here as well. What do we know about Cilibi Moise? My honest answer is that we do not know nothing indeed. ‘Man cannot be something unless he feels he is nothing’ that is in fact his creed, and it is also my creed as well. We know nothing about him. We only have a photograph of him, we have some testimonials, we have several literary episodes, a couple of clippings. We can place him in an equation which belongs to literary history rather than literary theory, even to a less extent to literary criticism.



    Cilibi Moise was born Moise Froim in Focsani, in 1812 and died in Bucharest, in 1870, at the age of 58. He hailed from an underprivileged Jewish family from Vrancea, in eastern Romania. Information sources abut Cilibi Moisse are scarce, telling us that ever since he was a child, he had no choice other than work or be into trading. They say Cilibi Moise came to be known among the traders thanks to his ludic spirit, strong enough in him to draw his clients. They also say Moise was illiterate and dictated to a type setter the proverbs, the aphorisms and the quotations that are attributed to him. We also understand that the great playwright Ion Luca Caragiale’ s father befriended Moise and that the latter dictated part of his creations to Caragiale himself. Despite the age gap, Cilibi Moise was quite close to rabbi, philologist, historian and journalist Moses Gaster. In his memoirs, Gaster names Moise cilibi, a word meaning the friendly one but also the smart one in Turkish. Philologist and literary historian Stefan Cazimir wrote that Moise got other nicknames as well, such as twicer, jester, sage, philosopher, but also the distinguished one, the noble one, the dapper. Cilibi Moise was the way he was also because, in his time, the people and the ways of the world were those of the century, just as Eugen Istodor told us.



    He is the way he is because the Romanian society was in a certain way. He got his name included in literary history because he wanted to. Yet that was rather something pertaining to the instinct, to the social animal in him, than a trader. He would rather be a trader, or that’s what I suspect. He would have liked to be something else; he would have liked to be rich and live his life to the fullest. He remained somewhere on the margin, instead. Moise Froim Schwartz did not tell that many things about himself. His irony was self-inflicting, it’s true, but he told nothing about him. He didn’t tell who he was or how he was. That speaks volumes about how we structure the literary and social hierarchies and about how we relate to them ourselves. Moise, as compared to Caragiale, for instance, to Macedonski, Ranetti and Geo Bogza, told nothing about him. He stole himself into and lived his life behind some proverbs where his irony was self-inflicting. Cilibi Moise lives only through the way the others perceived him, through the way the others resorted to a certain kind of rhetoric.



    Some of Cilibi Moise’s witticisms can be understood because their message is universal. For instance, it is Cilibi Moise who gave us this quotation about poverty: One day, Cilibi Moise ran into some kind of great shame. Thieves broke into his place at night and found nothing.



    Politics and affluence can also be understood by today’s people, all the more so as at that time things were different. As for Moise, his comments on politics went something like : for 30 years since poverty has been living with me and for 14 years since I have been living with politics, I got tired of doing politics, but poverty did not get tired of living with me. These are just two examples of the 15-volume thesaurus Cilibi Moise left behind him, a thesaurus made of aphorisms, proverbs, thoughts, anecdotes and pieces of advice.




  • Moldavian ruler Stephen the Great’s reign, revisited

    Moldavian ruler Stephen the Great’s reign, revisited

    The Romanian historian Liviu Campeanu, in 2012, while on a research stage at the Prussian Cultural Heritages Secret State Archives in Berlin, came across the manuscript of the diary kept by Liborius Nacker, the Secretary general of the Teutonic Order. Written in late 15th century, the document, whose existence had already been known to historians, mentions the contribution of the Teutonic knights who accompanied Polish King Ioan Albert in his campaign against then the Moldavian ruler Stephen the great. Resulting in the famous defeat of the Poles in the battle of Cosmin Woods, Codrii Cosminului, in Romanian, the campaign can be viewed in a fresh perspective and a more nuanced one, at that, according to the documents discovered by historian Liviu Campeanu. Actually, the discovered documents provided the starting point for Liviu Campeanus book, The Crusade against Stephen the Great. The Cosmin Woods 1497. Brought out by the Humanitas publishers in 2023, the volume depicts an even more complex and detailed picture of the woiwode. Stephen the Great s image was intensely hyped up according to the communist historiography.



    The Romanian Orthodox Church already canonized him as Stephen the Great and the Holy. Notwithstanding, in Liviu Campeanus volume, a more comprehensive and objective analysis is provided, of Moldavian woiwodes 47-year-long reign, from 1457 to 1504. It should be noted, though, that his most remarkable achievements are never questioned in the book. A telling example of that is Stephen the Greats stance towards the Ottoman Porte. We all remember Stephen the great has usually been described as a long-term and staunch anti-Ottoman opponent.



    Historian Liviu Campeanu:



    “Nothing new for the historians, yet for the lay public, for whom Stephen the Greats profile as a mighty crusader is all too familiar, a profile that has been constantly been build up towards, in the past two or three decades and even earlier, it may seem baffling to find out that, in earnest, Stephen the Great was an ally of the Sultan. Of his 47-year-old reign, Stephen the Great was at war with the Turks for 13 years, while of those 13 years, there were only three when he had to face large-scale Ottoman campaigns or massive Ottoman invasions that, on average, were conducted for about two months a year. Therefore, for 6 months out of 47 years he properly and openly fought the Ottoman Empire. Let me stress that once again, the state of belligerence lasted for about 13 years, while for the remaining number of years of the 47-year-old reign, Stephen the Great was an ally of the Sultan. “



    The alliance with the Ottoman Empire, just like the state of belligerence, at that time largely depended on specific circumstances and on the medieval states need for mutual help. The extremely volatile peace of the time, and the almost constant warlike atmosphere lead up to changes in the vassalage relationships, in keeping with the immediate interests and the looming dangers. As for Stephen the Greats Moldavia, it was no exception to that either, in Central and Eastern Europe.



    Liviu Campeanu:



    “I have been trying to present to the public the results I have achieved, precisely thanks to the documents discovered in 2012 in the Archives of the Teutonic Order that have been preserved in Berlin, to this day: the fact that Moldavia had been tributary to the Ottoman Empire about 20 years earlier that it had been usually known. So, according to historiography, everybody agreed that Moldavia began to pay tribute in 1455 or 1456. But I discovered documents clearly attesting the fact that twenty years earlier already, so from 1432, Moldavia had become a stipendiary for the Ottoman Empire. So it was in that tradition that Stephen the Great fit in, he actually paid the tribute for three decades of his glorious reign, which is not a negative aspect. Perhaps very few people know that even the Hapsburgs paid the tribute to the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, what with the French King Francis the 2nd, being Suleiman the Magnificents ally in the first half of the 16th century. So such alliances and peace or mutual help treaties were just as normal at that time, and Stephen the Great was no exception to that himself. Besides, thanks to the tribute he paid, not only did he secure peace with the Ottoman Empire, but also, he got proper help from the Turks in various campaigns and battles he fought with the neighbors. Speaking of which, what I have in mind is Matthias Corvinuss Hungary or Casimir the 4th s Poland or Wallachia, where war was in full swing, pitting the Dracula against the Dan boyar families in the second half of the 15th century. In that conflict, Stephen the Great intervened on a number of occasions, sometimes even with Ottoman support. “



    At the time when Stephen the Great was at war with the Ottoman Empire, one of his most remarkable victories occurred, that of January, 1475, when he defeated Soliman Pasa in Vaslui. Following that victory, Pope Sixtus the 4th named him the Athlete of Christendom. However, the title should be viewed only in close connection to that particular moment of his reign. Subsequently, from 1486 to the year of his death, 1504, Stephen the Great complied with the politics of the Sublime Porte. And there is more to it than that: the Ottoman Empire was his ally in the conflict with the Polish King Jan Olbracht, resulting in Moldavians win in the battle of Cosmin Woods, Codrii Cosminului, in Romanian, in September 1497. Bach then, in the Cosmin Woods Battle, two great alliance systems went against one another: the Polish-Lithuanian Union and its vassals, the Duchy of Mazovia and the Teutonic Order, on one hand, and, on the other hand, Moldavia, with its allies, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate. But how exactly the buildup to the conflict occurred, even though Stephen the Great had become Polands vassal in 1495, through a treaty signed in Colomeea? Here is Liviu Campeanu once again, this time outlining the historical background of that.



    “It was precisely from that kind of vassalage and the responsibilities Stephen the Great and the Polish King Casimir the 4th mutually took in Colomeea, in 1485, that this conflict sprang from. In effect, in 1484, Stephen the Great had lost to the Turks the Chilia and Cetatea Alba fortresses. Then he tried to regain them from the ottomans totally on his own, but that was virtually impossible. And then he veered towards the King of Poland. The Polish King consented to helping him, on condition that the former took a vassalage oath, which actually happened, in September 1485. However, the military aid made available by Casimir the 4th was insufficient and in no way met Stephen the Greats expectations. And then, in 1487, the Pope proclaimed an anti-Ottoman crusade across the entire Christendom and the Crusaders Army massed in Poland. Yet he did not rush to help Stephen the Great, just as the Colomeea Treaty stipulated, but Prince Jan Olbracht, still a prince back then and the supreme commander of the crusaders army, hijacked the crusade in Podolia. It was then that the great rift occurred, between Stephen the Great and the Polish Kings. Several minor border conflicts occurred as well, on both sides, culminating with the conflict of 1497. “



    Notwithstanding, King Ian Olbrachts campaign against Stephen the Great had an inconclusive ending. Considering the intricacies of the inter-state alliances of that time and also taking into account his victories and the relationships he set with the other monarchs, the Moldavian woiwode Stephen the Great was one of Central and Eastern Europes leading political actors of his time.




  • Political Priorities

    Political Priorities


    After a rather long winter recess, which started well before Christmas, on December 14, 2022, Romanian MPs are returning to work on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, for the first parliamentary session of the year.



    Among their priorities, the mass media notice, are sensitive bills, such as the one capping special pensions at the level of the salaries paid for the respective positions, or the ones amending the education laws, on which the parties in the ruling coalition, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Ethnic Hungarians in Romania are yet to reach an agreement.



    The Undergraduate Education Bill and the Higher Education Bill are still being analysed by education experts in the 3 parties. These are part of the Educated Romania project, launched nearly a decade ago by president Klaus Iohannis, and still pending approval.



    According to the timetable agreed by political decision-makers, these bills should be passed by the government in February and reach Parliament in March, for endorsement. But the Social Democratic MP Vasile Dîncu said recently that he had asked his party chief Marcel Ciolacu to request an extension for the education laws deadline, for further consultations. On the other hand, the Liberal spokesman Ionuţ Stroe insists that the original timetable must be complied with.



    Another bill to be discussed and endorsed concerns the pension benefits granted to certain categories of public sector employees, including magistrates, court staff and military personnel.



    Ahead of the elections due in 2024, another bill pending in Parliament stipulates that at least one-third of the candidates for parliamentary and local elections must be women.



    Meanwhile, analysts say, the Liberals and the Social Democrats are planning ahead for the PM rotation decided by the ruling coalition. Under a protocol in this respect, the 2 main coalition members are to swap posts at the end of May, when the Social Democrat Marcel Ciolacu should replace the Liberal Nicolae Ciucă as prime minister, and the latter should take over the Senate speaker post, currently held by his fellow Liberal Alina Gorghiu.



    The Liberals insist that, under the protocol, some government ministers should also be replaced, although the Social Democrats would like to keep the offices where they claim their members have put up good performances, such as Sorin Grindeanu at the transport ministry and Adrian Câciu at the finance ministry. (AMP)


  • Nature and Politics in 19th Century Romania

    Nature and Politics in 19th Century Romania

    Nature is a fundamental presence in the existence of humankind. In effect, the human being cannot possibly exist without nature. Nature is the physical or the material world. In time, man explained the existence of nature as an irrational presence, but also as a rational one, the relationship the human being has with nature has always stimulated thought; one way or another, all ideas and branches of science are linked to nature. The modern world that began in the second half of the 18th century placed nature on a par with the divine, whereas the Middle Ages and the pre-modern era placed their stakes on the idea of the supernatural. Therefore, nature became part of political debates, so much so that conservative or groundbreaking ideas pay heed to its significance.



    Nature as part of political debates would also emerge in the Romanian space. It was a French import. The Francophile Romanian intellectuals adopted the idea of nature, implemented it in politics, and analyzed its role and its relationship with politics in the set of attitudes man should have. Nature becomes essential in explaining the world from a political point of view.



    Raluca Alexandrescu is a professor with The University of Bucharests Political Sciences Faculty. Dr Alexandrescu explained the source of the political debate on nature in the Romanian space.



    We can already detect such tendencies in European logic, in the political discourse and in the European political narrative after 1850. An author I have already used as a landmark, precisely because, in very many respects, he is a source of inspiration and a role model, although I try not to use the world role model, is Jules Michelet. He himself has a radical change in discourse and in the research area of history and politics after 1851. “



    One of the first intellectuals who introduced nature in politics was engineer, geographer and writer Nestor Urechia. Raluca Alexandrescu has rediscovered his works and is now trying to put them into circulation once again.



    Nestor Urechia was V. A. Urechias son. He is an author who, as far as I could infer talking to my fellow historians, political scientists or anthropologists, has enjoyed unprecedented attention, I daresay. He has been not studied very much so far, so he revealed quite a few of his many sides as a scientific personality. He is an engineer trained at the École Polytechnique și École nationale des ponts et chaussées from Paris, he is the main manager of the worksites building DN 1, National Road 1, which he supervised and built between 1902 and 1913, on the Comarnic- Predeal sector. At the same time, he is a vocal Francophile. His wife was French, in fact. He is passionate about mountains and nature. All these things coalesce to form a very stimulating set of reflections for the reader nowadays.



    Urechia’s ideas stimulate the reader in reflecting on the relationship between territory, nature, democracy, sovereignty. This is an initial idea in Urechia’s writings that Raluca Alexandrescu wanted to remark upon:



    “He observes that the earth is interesting mostly through its relationship with people. This is his main starting issue. The relationship with people did not just mean the aspects that we would see from an activist ecological perspective, meaning taking care of the environment, what we can do to protect it, but more than that. Urechia’s intent was to build a more theoretical proposal. His proposal took into account this more and more mobile, dynamic, more fluid relationship of society, of groups and individuals that compose it, with various forms of manifestation of nature, that form of cohabitation. This is interesting because this idea of peaceful cohabitation with nature, which today dominates the general discourse in general, is not very apparent in this period. Therefore, man and nature are actors with equal rights on a stage that brings them together under a harmonious political regime.



    How does national belonging come about? Raluca Alexandrescu summarized Nestor Urechia’s answer:



    “Another idea which is not so original, but is worth following in Urechia’s writing is the way in which he follows the construction of the modern expression of the nation in rhetoric about nature. Here we should rather refer to his novels, which are basically just stories. We are talking about a few volumes he published in early 20th century, such as Bucegi, The Spell of the Bucegi, and later The Robinsons of Bucegi. In these literary attempts we can see very clearly the intention to build the rhetoric of an identity, even a national one, relating to the way in which nature and politics blend together.



    Today, nature and politics, just like 150 years ago, are present in what people believe is important for them and for the community they live in. Nestor Urechia is a name that Romanians can reflect on when they talk about themselves.(EN, CC)


  • December 2, 2022 UPDATE

    December 2, 2022 UPDATE

    VISIT The president of Romania Klaus
    Iohannis had a meeting in Athens on Friday with his Greek counterpart, Katerina
    Sakellaropoulou, who reiterated Greece’s full support for Romania’s Schengen
    accession. The two officials praised the very good relations between the two
    countries, strengthened by cultural affinities and by a long common history,
    and emphasized the close cooperation at EU, regional and international level. Given
    the current security situation generated by Russia’s illegal military
    aggression against Ukraine, they emphasized the importance of maintaining
    trans-Atlantic unity and solidarity and reiterated the support that their
    respective countries will continue to give to Ukraine and to Ukrainian refugees,
    as well as to the R. of Moldova. The Romanian president is in Greece for a
    2-day official visit.


    COMPANIES The number of new
    companies running on foreign capital set up in Romania in the first 10 months
    of the year is 30.7% higher than in the corresponding period of 2021, according
    to the National Trade Registry Office. The 6,175 new companies have a combined
    share capital of over USD 35 million. At the end of October 2022, 243,022
    companies in Romania had foreign share capital. The largest number of companies
    had Italian investors, but the highest capital value was reported for Dutch
    companies. In related news, Romania’s software industry is growing steadily,
    with the combined turnover in the sector expected to reach a record-high EUR 11
    billion this year. According to a survey, the upward trend has been steady for
    the past 10 years, and the growth rate almost tripled during this period. In
    2021 there were over 30,000 software firms in Romania.


    GAUDEAMUS The 29th edition of the
    Gaudeamus Book Fair hosted by Radio Romania kicks off next week.
    200 publishers will be exhibiting their latest and current releases in various
    formats, addressing all age brackets and fields of interests, music as well as
    educational games. 600 events have been announced in addition to various
    related projects. Pavilions are also available online on gaudeamus.ro. The
    Gaudeamus Book Fair is financed by the Ministry of Culture.


    POLITICS The National Congress of the Alliance for the Unity of
    Romanians (AUR), a nationalist party in opposition in Romania, Friday endorsed
    its political promotion strategy for 2023. It includes building a mobile
    hospital and organising medical caravans which would also present the party’s
    views on the main areas of interest. The party president, George Simion, added
    that some of the subsidies received by the party will be used for purchasing
    school buses. The head of the party’s National Council, Claudiu Târziu, said
    national reunification is AUR’s country project and requested the governments
    of Romania and of the R. of Moldova to initiate immediate consultations in this
    respect.


    SCHENGEN The Dutch government Friday decided to agree with Romania’s
    and Croatia’s Schengen accession, but will oppose the accession of Bulgaria, on
    grounds that the country does not meet the required conditions. The Swedish
    parliament’s committee for European affairs also voted in favour of Romania’s
    accession. The Romanian PM Nicolae Ciucă and the foreign minister Bogdan
    Aurescu hailed the decisions concerning Romania. A possible enlargement of the Schengen
    area is one of the topics on the agenda of the Justice and Home Affairs Council
    meeting due on December 8. (AMP)

  • Medieval Romanian rulers and their age

    Medieval Romanian rulers and their age


    Stephen
    the Great was the most important ruling prince in the history of Moldavia. Stephen
    the Great ruled Moldavia for 47 years, between the second half of the 15th
    century and the early 16th century, actually between 1457 and 1504. It
    was a most remarkable feat in itself, not only because of its duration, at a
    time when instability was rampant, but also because of the management of power.
    Stephen the Great knew how to play an intelligent game between Hungary and
    Poland, then the regional powers, and the Ottoman Empire, in turn being their
    ally and their opponent.


    The Romanian historians of the Romantic period in the 19th
    century created a heroic image of Stephen the Great, as well as an image of a
    powerful and thriving Moldavia. However, even during such an auspicious reign as
    that of Stephen the Great, the principality of Moldavia still lay at the periphery
    of European civilization. If we look into the external and internal documents
    of that time, we can see Moldavia was a marginal territory, with people living
    on limited means and with a high degree of insecurity. Historian and archeologist
    Adrian Andrei Rusu is the author of the most recent work on Stephen the Great’s
    ruling period. Rusu focuses on the material civilization of Moldavia in the
    second half of the 15th century. The historian is set to bust the exaggerations of
    historians of the Romantic period as well as the archaeological errors. Historian
    Ovidiu Cristea is affiliated to the Nicolae Iorga Institute of History. Dr
    Cristea told us the discrepancy between what the authors of the documents say
    and the historians is caused by the difficulty to tailor the language and the
    content of the past to suit the demands of the present.

    Ovidiu Cristea:


    I am quoting one of
    professor Rusu’s tenets: the medieval reality could not have been covered by
    the dictionaries of the chancellery language. And at this point, a very good
    example was provided by Umberto Eco. Examining Marco Polo’s text,
    Eco used to say Marco Polo mentioned some sort of unicorn because, to the best
    of his knowledge at that time, what he had seen, and which was in fact a
    rhinoceros, could not possibly have been expressed through an appropriate word.
    Using his knowledge of the medieval bestiary, Polo spoke about a unicorn
    instead of of mentioning a rhinoceros. And that can also happen when we run
    into apparently unusual objects, whose usefulness is unbeknownst to us.


    Historian Adrian Rusu said that in his most recent research nhe focused,
    among other things, on as detailed as possible descriptions of daily life, in a
    bid to make the Moldavian world at the time of Stephen the Great accessible to contemporary
    readership. A case in point was the recast of the residence where Stephen the Great
    used to live, which was something that had never been done before.


    Dr Adrian Adrei Rusu:


    I had to go over
    the entire archaeological and architectural information for a second time
    around and prove that in his Suceava castle, Stephen had princely suites. He
    had an assembly hall with a gothic vault, with very beautiful keys and, come to
    think of it, the Moldavian rulers even had a bathroom, a cold-water bathroom
    and a hot-water bathroom. There also was a garden, which was absolutely normal
    for all neighboring princely and royal courts. It was hard to imagine for those ruling princes, especially for
    Stephen the Great, who had a long-lasting and unswerving reign, which was
    strongly built into all sectors of civilization, to be deprived of something which,
    in his time, simply went with the territory.


    As for the dynamism of the economic activity in Moldavia, historian
    Adrian Rusu expressed his skepticism.


    We’re speaking about the great trade route,
    crossing Moldavia from north to south, but shipment was only made of
    pepper and silks, and that could not be a driving force for civilization. Very
    few people got rich doing that kind of trade. Other people got rich, the Saxons
    in Transylvania, Brasov and Bistritsa got rich, in Moldavia they were selling
    nails, hammers, hacksaws, timber, textile, all that the ordinary people of that
    time needed. All those products, in fact, pushed society forward. There also
    was a come-and-go movement of craftsmen, they did not settle in Moldavia.
    They came and worked seasonally, yet they worked constantly because Stephen the
    Great offered them an inflow of construction yards, he guaranteed their payment
    and that is how that string or architectural foundations came into being and
    which also began to perform stylistically.


    Under the circumstances, how was it possible for Stephen the Great’s
    reign to be that long? Here is historian Adrian Rusu once again, attempting an
    explanation.


    Clearly it is all about his personal qualities. The man understood
    his time, and understood his competitors. It was all clear that one year after
    the next during his reign, he was threatened by the rivals who could turn up in
    droves from everywhere. He was capable of knowing his country, his was a
    governance solution he inherited from John Hunyadi. If you want to know your
    country, you need to go places all the time so that people can see you. It wasn’t
    written anywhere, but everyone could tell it was a princely suite coming. There were
    signs of display of the princely authority we were not that much aware of: how exactly
    the ruling prince showed up before his country ? .


    In 2006,
    as part of the Great Romanians contest, Stephen the Great was voted the greatest
    Romanian ever to have existed. Yet about the voivode and his age, we need to
    know all about that using a language
    which remains a language of the past but which always needs to be adapted to
    the present.

    (EN)


  • A new crisis in the Liberal Party

    A new crisis in the Liberal Party

    An extraordinary
    congress of the National Liberal Party, a member of the ruling coalition in
    Romania, will be held on April 10 in order to elect a new party president, the
    Liberals’ National Council decided this Sunday. As many as 1,300 delegates will
    take part. Until then, the head of the Suceava County Council Gheorghe Flutur will
    act as interim president.


    On Saturday, the Senate Speaker Florin Cîţu
    announced his resignation as head of the Liberal Party. Many Liberals had
    demanded that he stepped down, over claims that he caused tensions with the
    Social Democrats within the ruling coalition, that he failed to communicate to
    party members and that he has a poor public image that affects the party’s
    scores in voting intention polls.


    Cîţu’s opponents would like the party
    presidency to be taken over by PM Nicolae Ciucă, who, mass media argue, has a
    much better public image and a coherent dialogue with the ruling partners. A respected military professional, Ciucă is
    however involved in a plagiarism scandal concerning his Ph.D. thesis.


    The former PM Cîţu was elected party president
    only half a year ago, in late September 2021. Openly supported by the head of
    state Klaus Iohannis at that point, he won a tight election against another
    former prime minister, Ludovic Orban, who had been running the party since
    2017. Orban claimed that congress saw the most serious
    violations of democratic rules ever committed in a political party in the last 31
    years. He also announced then that he renounced his partnership with Iohannis,
    to whom he had seemed quite loyal up to that point, and in December he quit the
    party altogether, and jointly with other former Liberals he set up a new right-of-centre
    party.


    Founded in 1875, the National Liberal Party has always taken
    pride in leading Romania in its most propitious moments: the proclamation of
    its independence in 1877, when the country got
    rid of centuries-long Ottoman rule, and the Great Union of 1918, when after WWI
    all the territories inhabited mostly by Romanians and previously under Russian
    and Austrian-Hungarian domination joined the Kingdom of Romania. Outlawed by
    the post-war communist dictatorship brought in by Soviet troops, the National
    Liberal Party re-emerged in the Romanian political arena shortly after the
    anti-communist revolution of 1989, and takes pride in being in power in 2007, when
    Romania was accepted in the EU.


    But countless in-house scandals in recent years
    have overshadowed the public’s confidence in the Liberal Party. In the latest
    voting intentions poll, the Liberals stand at 16%, only 1% above the
    nationalist AUR party in opposition and 20% below their current ruling
    partners, the Social Democrats. (A.M.P.)

  • Political disputes in Bucharest

    Political disputes in Bucharest

    A
    former technocratic prime minister of Romania and a European commissioner for
    agriculture, Dacian Cioloş resigned as president of the Save Romania Union,
    four months after being elected. The reason for his resignation is that the party
    leadership, which is dominated by allies of the former president, Dan Barna, rejected
    the reform project he initiated. Cioloş says this does not mean he will abandon
    the party:




    Owing
    to the lack of support for this plan in the National Bureau, I believe the
    decent thing to do is tender my resignation. I remain, however, in the party. In
    order to have a future, and I believe it must have a future, this party needs
    refreshing, needs to reconnect itself to the society, needs the courage to recognise
    the limits it must overcome in the near future.




    The
    former transport minister Cătălin Drulă has taken over as interim leader and
    immediately announced a change of course to a more Liberal political orientation.
    He called on party members to remain united. With the Social Democratic Party,
    the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in
    Romania together in power, thus enjoying a 70% majority in Parliament, the Save
    Romania Union is in fact the only democratic opposition party in Romania.




    The
    other parliamentary party in opposition, the Alliance for the Union of
    Romanians (AUR), increasingly looks like the ideological heir to Romania’s far
    right movement from the inter-war period. On Monday, they were responsible for
    a worrying incident that occurred in the Chamber of Deputies during debates on
    a no-confidence motion on the subject of energy bills. The energy minister
    Virgil Popescu, who was trying to explain why the population has to pay such
    steep energy bills, was assaulted by the leader of the Alliance for the Union
    of Romanians George Simion, who grabbed the minister by the neck. This is the first
    time Parliament is witnessing an incident involving physical violence, despite
    being no stranger to verbal abuse. The meeting was suspended and when it was
    resumed the only MPs present were those from the Alliance for the Union of
    Romanians and the Save Romania Union, who initiated the no-confidence motion. No
    sanction was taken against Simion, because there are no provisions in this
    sense in Parliament’s regulations. The Liberal leader Florin Cîţu said he would
    propose clear and tough measures for such incidents.




    The
    Alliance for the Union of Romanians has a busy record, including a violent
    protest outside Parliament against the mandatory use of the Covid green certificate
    in the workplace; the forceable entry by its leader George Simion into the Timişoara
    city hall; and frequent heckling of MPs from other parliamentary parties,
    including filming them without permission and physically accosting them. Through
    its leaders, the Alliance of the Union of Romanians has also been aggressively promoting
    anti-vaccination, ultranationalism and sovereigntism. It was only
    recently that this party described the Holocaust as a minor theme that does not
    deserve a special place in the school curriculum, which sparked vehement
    reactions from the Israeli embassy and the Elie Wiesel National Institute for
    Studying the Holocaust in Romania.




    The violence
    with which the party is promoting its so-called ideas seems, however, to be to
    the liking of Romanian voters: from the fourth biggest party in Parliament, it now
    climbed to number two in opinion polls. (CM)

  • February 8, 2022

    February 8, 2022

    COVID-19 36,269 new SARS-CoV-2 infections were
    reported for the past 24 hours in Romania, along with 193 related fatalities,
    the Strategic Communication Group announced on Tuesday. Since the start of the
    pandemic 2 years ago, more than 2 million Romanians have had the disease and
    over 60,000 died. Meanwhile, since the start of the vaccine roll-out in
    December 2020, over 8 million people have received a full vaccination cycle,
    and 2.4 million have also got the booster dose.


    MOLDOVA
    The number of supporters of
    the R. of Moldova’s union with Romania is growing, according to an opinion poll
    quoted by Radio Chişinău on Tuesday. Over 34%
    of the respondents in Moldova would vote in favour of the union, says the poll
    commissioned by IDIS Viitorul in Chișinău and the Institute of Political
    Sciences and International Relations with the Romanian Academy. This is a
    record-high number of union supporters, over 10 times higher than in 2010. According
    to the same poll, which focused on citizens’ perception of the relations
    between Moldova and Romania, over 62% of the people with dual citizenship would
    vote for the union. However, in the case of new tensions similar to the one in
    Ukraine, more people would back a military alliance with Russia (22.5%) than
    with Romania (12.5%).




    POLITICS The Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Tuesday that a criminal
    investigation was initiated with respect to an incident in Parliament, where
    the Romanian energy minister Virgil Popescu was assaulted by the co-president
    of the nationalist opposition party AUR, George Simion. Popescu had previously filed
    a criminal complaint against Simion. While attending a Chamber of Deputies
    meeting on Monday, the Liberal minister Virgil Popescu was insulted and
    assaulted by Simion. The meeting was suspended, and subsequently resumed with only
    the opposition MPs from AUR and USR in attendance.


    POLLUTION Romanian authorities have today launched 2 programmes, RABLA Clasic and
    RABLA Plus 2022, with a combined budget of around 240 million euros. Under the
    2 programmes, the Government provides subsidies for scrapping old and heavily
    polluting motor vehicles. The same rules apply as in previous years, but
    novelties have also been introduced. One of them is the option of using 2
    vouchers obtained through scrapping used vehicles for the purchase of a hybrid
    or electric vehicle.


    UKRAINE The president of France Emmanuel Macron discussed with the Russian
    leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday about the need for dialogue in the
    context of the Ukraine standoff. At the end of the meeting, Emmanuel Macron said
    all parties should behave responsibly in this crisis. He pleaded for
    maintaining the current system of agreements concerning European security, and
    suggested that a system of concrete security guarantees be put together for all
    stakeholders. In turn, Putin said a number of ideas and proposals put forth by
    the French president may pave the way for the de-escalation of the current
    crisis over Ukraine. Vladimir Putin also added that Russia and France have
    shared concerns regarding security in Europe. Today the French president meets
    his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, in the first official
    visit of a French president to that country in 24 years. Macron has repeatedly
    discussed the need to deescalate tensions and to find diplomatic solutions to
    the situation in the east of Europe, and emphasised that finding a political
    way out of the standoff was his priority. Meanwhile in Washington, following
    talks at the White House with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US president
    Joe Biden said diplomacy remains the best way to settle the Ukraine crisis. He warned
    however that the US and NATO will be prepared in case Russia attacks Ukraine. (tr. A.M.P.)

  • Political disputes in Bucharest

    Political disputes in Bucharest

    A
    former technocratic prime minister of Romania and a European commissioner for
    agriculture, Dacian Cioloş resigned as president of the Save Romania Union,
    four months after being elected. The reason for his resignation is that the party
    leadership, which is dominated by allies of the former president, Dan Barna, rejected
    the reform project he initiated. Cioloş says this does not mean he will abandon
    the party:




    Owing
    to the lack of support for this plan in the National Bureau, I believe the
    decent thing to do is tender my resignation. I remain, however, in the party. In
    order to have a future, and I believe it must have a future, this party needs
    refreshing, needs to reconnect itself to the society, needs the courage to recognise
    the limits it must overcome in the near future.




    The
    former transport minister Cătălin Drulă has taken over as interim leader and
    immediately announced a change of course to a more Liberal political orientation.
    He called on party members to remain united. With the Social Democratic Party,
    the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in
    Romania together in power, thus enjoying a 70% majority in Parliament, the Save
    Romania Union is in fact the only democratic opposition party in Romania.




    The
    other parliamentary party in opposition, the Alliance for the Union of
    Romanians (AUR), increasingly looks like the ideological heir to Romania’s far
    right movement from the inter-war period. On Monday, they were responsible for
    a worrying incident that occurred in the Chamber of Deputies during debates on
    a no-confidence motion on the subject of energy bills. The energy minister
    Virgil Popescu, who was trying to explain why the population has to pay such
    steep energy bills, was assaulted by the leader of the Alliance for the Union
    of Romanians George Simion, who grabbed the minister by the neck. This is the first
    time Parliament is witnessing an incident involving physical violence, despite
    being no stranger to verbal abuse. The meeting was suspended and when it was
    resumed the only MPs present were those from the Alliance for the Union of
    Romanians and the Save Romania Union, who initiated the no-confidence motion. No
    sanction was taken against Simion, because there are no provisions in this
    sense in Parliament’s regulations. The Liberal leader Florin Cîţu said he would
    propose clear and tough measures for such incidents.




    The
    Alliance for the Union of Romanians has a busy record, including a violent
    protest outside Parliament against the mandatory use of the Covid green certificate
    in the workplace; the forceable entry by its leader George Simion into the Timişoara
    city hall; and frequent heckling of MPs from other parliamentary parties,
    including filming them without permission and physically accosting them. Through
    its leaders, the Alliance of the Union of Romanians has also been aggressively promoting
    anti-vaccination, ultranationalism and sovereigntism. It was only
    recently that this party described the Holocaust as a minor theme that does not
    deserve a special place in the school curriculum, which sparked vehement
    reactions from the Israeli embassy and the Elie Wiesel National Institute for
    Studying the Holocaust in Romania.




    The violence
    with which the party is promoting its so-called ideas seems, however, to be to
    the liking of Romanian voters: from the fourth biggest party in Parliament, it now
    climbed to number two in opinion polls. (CM)

  • February 6, 2022

    February 6, 2022

    Pandemic.
    The Romanian government has extended the state of alert for a further 30 days
    from Monday. First declared in 2020 after two months of state of emergency following
    the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, the state of alert provides, among others,
    for the obligatory wearing of face masks both indoors and outdoors. Cinemas,
    theatres and restaurants can open at 50% capacity in localities with an
    incidence rate below 3 per 1,000 inhabitants and at 30% where the incidence
    rate exceeds this level. Under a new emergency order, the deadline for filling
    in the digital form on entering the country has been extended from 24 to 72
    hours. The authorities said the time when the state of alert is lifted is
    nearing, but that a decision in this sense will only be taken after careful
    consideration. More than 16,000 new cases were reported today, as well as 82
    related fatalities, including 7 from an earlier date. Since the start of the
    pandemic, Romania reported 2.3 million Covid cases and over 60,000 related
    fatalities. With only 8 million people fully vaccinated, the country has the
    second lowest vaccination rate in the 27 EU member states, with only Bulgaria
    doing worse.




    Politics. Parliament will be debating on Monday a
    no-confidence motion against the energy minister, the Liberal Virgil Popescu,
    introduced by the Save Romania Union, in opposition. The motion, signed by 51
    MPs, accuses Popescu of being a threat to the country’s energy security, asking
    for his dismissal. The Save Romania Union also denounces what it describes as
    the disastrous way in which the government has managed the energy bills issue,
    saying people have ended paying huge sums, with both citizens and the economy
    suffering as a result of the decisions made by the authorities. The motion will
    be put to the vote on Wednesday. Also next week, the Senate’s specialist
    committees will begin debating a government order on caps and compensations for
    electricity and natural gas bills. The main parties in the ruling coalition,
    the National Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, disagree, however,
    on how long the new support scheme should be applied for. The Social Democrats want
    it to also apply retroactively, while the Liberals say this may be
    unconstitutional.






    Olympics. Romanian
    athletes are in action today at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Valentin Creţu is
    racing in the third heat of the luge men’s singles competition, while Daniel
    Cacina and Andrei Feldorean are taking part in the ski jumping men’s normal
    hill individual final. Paul Pepene finished 28th in men’s 15km + 15km
    skiathlon. Romania has 21 athletes at the Games, in luge, bobsleigh, alpine skiing,
    cross-country skiing, ski jumping, biathlon and speed skating. Following the
    diplomatic boycott of the United States and other Western states over China’s
    human rights abuses, the Chinese foreign minister accused the US administration
    of violating the principle of the political neutrality of sports and of basing its
    actions on lies and false information and on ideology and political prejudice.
    The US denounced China’s treatment of its Uyghur population, a Turkic-speaking
    Sunni Muslim community in western China, and raised concerns over China’s
    policies in the Buddhist Tibet, which was annexed in 1950, and in Hong Kong, a
    former British colony which returned to Chinese control in 1997.




    Handball. The Romanian women’s handball
    champions CSM Bucharest are today playing the Croatian side Podravka Vegeta
    Koprivnica in a Champions League Group A match. With only two points, the
    Croatian side are in the last place in the 8-team group, while CSM, who have 12
    points, are in fifth place, which on paper means they have secured their
    qualification to the round of last 16.
    Also today, CS Minaur Baia Mare are playing the French side Les Neptunes
    de Nantes in Group B of the women’s EHF European League. Another Romanian side
    in this completion, SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea on Saturday pulled off their third
    consecutive win in Group D, defeating another French side, Chambray Touraine
    Handball 32-27. (CM)

  • Geo-politics in today’s Romania

    Geo-politics in today’s Romania


    Neighbouring Republic of
    Moldova is a former Soviet republic, with a predominantly-Romanian-speaking
    population. The Republic of Moldova gained its independence 30 years ago.
    Notwithstanding, Moldova is still searching for a better future for its
    citizens. The number of its citizens is dwindling by the year; Moldovans have
    been opting for leaving the country to relocate to Western Europe, in the hopes
    they will find a better live there. It is the dismal aftermath of the policy decision-makers
    in Chisinau have been implementing for a number of years. Such a policy caused
    a great number of problems, mostly economic. However, a fresh breath of hope
    for the better has been recently provided by Maia Sandu’s gaining accession to power.
    She is a reformist, pro-European president, dead set on implementing a
    thoroughgoing series of modern reforms for the state and its institutions. And
    the chances to achieve that are all the greater as the recently-instated
    government in Chisinau is literally fine-tuned in its bid to work with the president.
    The parliament, for its part, is also dominated by a majority that also offers
    its backing for Maia Sandu’s reformist endeavour. And at that, the high-ranking
    authorities in Bucharest have been quick to offer their unconditional support to
    the Republic of Moldova. Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu has recently
    been a guest on a Romanian state-run TV program. While on the show, Minister Aurescu
    recalled that on July 23rd this year, he was the first EU high-ranking
    official to have been on a visit to Chisinau, on the sidelines of Maia Sandu’s
    winning the early parliamentary election. Aurescu also stated he held talks
    with officials on the Republic of Moldova for the bi-lateral cooperation to be
    relaunched. Foreign Affairs Minister Aurescu also stated, QUOTE, All we have done
    this year, and let me remind you that last year, the first head of state to
    have visited the Republic of Moldova when Maia Sandu won the election was Romania’s
    president Klaus Iohannis, all that we did this year was to try, immediately after
    the snap election that brought to power the new pro-reform, pro-European
    majority, to support the reformist efforts, UNQUOTE.


    We can say we have reached a point
    where the priorities of the bi-lateral agenda can no longer be overlooked and
    we have noticed there already has been a mutual interest on the part of the
    elites, and not only on the part of citizens, as in effect, for a long time citizens
    somehow had been ahead of the authorities, as for various reasons the latter failed
    to cooperate and were unable to materialize all those tendencies populations living
    on both banks of Prut river have always had. It is the assessment provided by former
    presidential adviser in Chisinau, Vlad Turcanu, in a Radio Romania program.


    Vlad Turcanu:

    The authorities
    in Chisinau have initiated, as of this autumn, once with the snap election on July
    11 and once a new government was instated, sweeping reforms in all the fields of
    activity, practically, and they are aware that, without the contribution of such
    friend states as Romania, that is not going to be easy at all. Take, for
    instance, the gas crisis, about which we can say it has already ended, even
    though we can still speak about lingering setback issues. But in those days of uncertainty,
    a great many things mattered, for the atmosphere in Chisinau and for the safety
    of the political endeavour in Chisinau, like the support signals sent from
    Bucharest and other European capital cities. And, from my point of view, it is
    no mean feat to be aware of the fact that, in the event of a force majeure circumstance,
    you can receive natural gas from Romania through a gas line, built with the
    help of Romania, whose contribution to that was significant. In the Republic of
    Moldova, there are many vulnerabilities, in the energy system, in the IT or the security systems, which Republic of Moldova’s foes will never
    cease to capitalize on. Such categories of risk, which for long have been ignored,
    will resurface, and the expertise Romania holds in those as well as in other
    fields will be extremely useful for the transformations we have initiated here,
    in the Republic of Moldova.


    Republic of Moldova’s pro-European
    government has been instated with a wide majority of parliamentary votes in favour,
    63 in 101. The government will have to prove it is capable of
    implementing the reforms it pledged it would carry through, Vlad Turcanu also
    said. The former presidential adviser went on to say that, as Republic of Moldova
    emerges out of the isolation that has been introduced in recent years, several projects
    are beginning to take shape, a clear example for the Republic of Moldova moving
    in the European direction and being also set to solve all those problems that
    have accrued. And at that, Romania’s help is very important.

    Vlad Turcanu:


    The lines
    of cooperation are quite a few. Romania’s and Republic of Moldova’s Foreign
    Affairs Ministers have signed a roadmap on the priority cooperation areas, the
    education ministers in turn signed an agreement on the mutual recognition of diplomas,
    certificates and scientific titles. But the most important element on the infrastructure
    agenda is Republic of Moldova’ s being reconnected to the EU electricity
    system. Because it is here that one of the vulnerabilities lies, that I was speaking
    about. The Republic of Moldova has been contracting electric energy from the
    Cuciurgan Power Plant, built on the left bank of River Dniester on the territory
    of the unrecognized Dniester Republic. And that, for Republic of Moldova, has
    been a major setback all the time, because it had to be extremely careful with
    its relationship with the Russian federation, lest they find themselves cut off
    from the power grid, completely.


    Republic
    of Moldova’s roadmap is extremely specific. It focuses on each and every field
    of interest for the bilateral relation. The document was signed as part of Maia
    Sandu’s recent visit to Bucharest this year, against the backdrop of the
    three-decade anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations. The document seeks
    to implement everything required for meeting a series of major set targets for
    the following period. Such targets pertain to the stimulation of Republic of Moldova’s
    European Integration and to a deeper interconnection of Republic of Moldova’s with
    European Union area. Also, the economic and social development will be
    stimulated, so that Moldovan citizens can benefit from truly European standards
    with respect to everything related to life, society, administration and the
    justice system. And, last but not the least, the document stipulates the mutual
    desire to strengthen the two states’ common provinces of language, culture and
    history.


    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)

  • November 16, 2021 UPDATE

    November 16, 2021 UPDATE

    COVID-19 The coronavirus epidemic stays on a downward trend in Romania. On Tuesday the
    authorities reported 4,128 new Covid infections out of over 55,000 tests, which
    accounts for a 7.41% positive rate. Another 397 related fatalities were also
    reported, including 54 that had not been recorded in the system earlier. Some
    14,000 Covid patients are currently receiving hospital treatment, including
    almost 1,700 in intensive care. The incidence rate is on the decrease in
    Bucharest, dropping to 5.34 cases per 1,000 inhabitants on Tuesday. In related
    news, non-invasive testing is due to begin in schools for children and
    teachers. At the moment, almost three quarters of Romanian schools and kindergartens
    are holding in-person classes, the rule being that only schools with a
    vaccination rate among their staff of at least 60% can reopen for in-person
    teaching, the rest holding classes on line. As for vaccination, the pace has
    dropped steadily in recent days, compared to a peak of over 110,000 doses
    administered on 27 September. Nearly 7 million Romanians are fully vaccinated
    at present.




    SCHOOLS Legal and financial education have become
    compulsory skills in primary and middle schools in Romania. President Klaus
    Iohannis Tuesday signed a law amending the Education Act, to include these
    areas in the national curriculum. The document also includes financial and
    legal education in the teaching programmes of local lifelong learning community
    centres. In a first stage, these subjects can be introduced as optional school
    subjects only, because national curricula must be approved by the Education
    Ministry.




    ECONOMY Romania,
    Hungary and Lithuania have the biggest annual growth rate in the European Union
    in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period last year,
    according to preliminary data published by the European statistical office
    Eurostat. GDP grew in the EU by 3.9%, with Romania at 8%, Hungary at 6.1% and
    Lithuania at 6%. However, according to the latest figures published by the
    National Institute for Statistics, Romania’s economic growth rate slowed down
    to 0.3% in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter. In the first
    nine months of the year, GDP grew by 7.1% compared with the same period last
    year. Economic experts say the growth rate will slow down even more this autumn
    and winter, while the inflation rate may go up to 8% in the context of the
    current political crisis.




    EU Romania’s
    foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu attended a ministerial meeting of the Eastern
    Partnership held in Brussels, where EU foreign ministers agreed to expand the
    criteria for imposing new sanctions against Belarus. The new sanctions would
    target those involved in weaponising the plight of migrants. The European Union
    is accusing Belarus of intentionally creating a migrant crisis on the border
    with Poland and the Baltic countries in retaliation to the Union’s earlier
    sanctions against the regime in Belarus for its crackdown on the opposition.
    Minister Aurescu presented Romania’s stand on the strategic priorities of the
    Eastern Partnership post-2020 and called for a consolidation of the security
    dimension in the Eastern Neighbourhood, as well as for greater involvement from
    the EU in solving the frozen or protracted conflicts in this region.




    MILITARY The EU is considering a joint military force of up to 5,000 troops by
    2025, to intervene in a number of crises without needing to rely on the US,
    according to a draft strategic plan, Reuters says. The EU
    Rapid Deployment Capacity should include land, sea and air capabilities. Two decades after the EU leaders first agreed to
    set up a force of 50,000-60,000 troops, which never became operational, the
    strategy drafted by the EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell is the most concrete
    effort to create an independent military force that does not rely on US assets.
    Not all the 27 EU member states would have to contribute troops, but a
    consensus would be required for any deployment. Since 2007, the EU has had
    battlegroups of 1,500 troops available, but they have never been deployed, in
    spite of efforts to use them in Chad and Libya.





    Radio and TV Parliament
    approved the new leadership of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation,
    which Radio Romania International also forms part of. With the support of the
    Social Democratic Party, the new director general at Radio Romania isRăzvan-Ioan
    Dincă, a former National Opera director who has a court of first instance
    conviction for abuse of office and false statement but who was later acquitted.
    The leadership of the Romanian television was also appointed, with the
    journalist Dan Cristian Turturică becoming the new director general, with the
    support of the National Liberal Party. The members of the new boards are
    appointed for a 4-year term and have to take an oath in Parliament. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • October 26, 2021

    October 26, 2021

    Covid-19. The epidemiological situation remains
    complicated in Romania, as more than 16,700 new cases and 523 new fatalities,
    including 12 recorded earlier, were reported in the last 24 hour, according to official data published on Tuesday. These are the second highest figures since
    the start of the pandemic, with the highest being recorded on 19th
    October. Amid this dramatic situation, an increasing number of people are getting
    the Covid vaccine. More than 93,000 received their first jab in the last 24
    hours, which is a record high. The total number of fully jabbed people in this
    country is now nearing 6 million.




    Treatment. The European Commission established a portfolio of ten
    potential therapeutics for Covid-19. These will become available across the
    European Union as fast as possible, provided their safety and effectiveness are
    confirmed by the European Medicines Agency. The list of ten is divided into
    three categories of treatments: antiviral monoclonal
    antibodies that are most efficacious in the earliest stages of infection; oral
    antivirals for use as quickly as possible after the infection; and
    immunomodulators to treat hospitalised patients. According to the EU
    Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides, four joint
    procurement contracts for different Covid-19 treatments have already been
    signed.


    State visit. Romanian president
    Klaus Iohannis will be travelling to Egypt tomorrow on a state visit at the
    invitation of his counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. The
    visit comes against the backdrop of very good bilateral dialogue in recent
    years and the anniversary of 115 years of diplomatic relations between Romania
    and Egypt. The two presidents are expected to discuss concrete ways to boost
    political and diplomatic dialogue and cooperation at all levels, including
    economic, by stimulating trade exchanges and investments. Talks will also look
    at international issues, with emphasis on the latest political and security
    developments in the Middle East and the mediation efforts in certain areas of
    interest to both parties. Iohannis is also due to meet the speaker of the
    Egyptian Parliament’s Chamber of Representatives, Hanafy Ali El-Gebaly, and the
    speaker of the Senate, Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razeq.


    Politics. Prime minister designate Nicolae Ciucă has
    so far failed to secure parliamentary support for a minority government formed
    by the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in
    Romania. The Social Democrats made their support conditional on the new
    government’s committing to implement ten urgent measures in the healthcare and
    economic sectors. The Save Romania Union is not in favour of a minority
    government and is proposing instead the restoration of the ruling coalition it
    used to be part of from last December until September this year, when it
    withdrew from government over a conflict with prime minister Florin Citu. Citu went on to lose a confidence vote in Parliament. Nicolae
    Ciucă has until the end of the week to propose a new government and programme.




    Budget deficit.
    Romania’s budget deficit hit 3.77% of GDP in the first 9 months of the year,
    down 2.6% compared with the similar period last year. Budget revenues grew by
    18.7% in the first nine months of this year, more than over the same period
    last year, according to the finance ministry. Consolidated budget expenditure
    went up by 6.7% compared with the same period in 2020. (CM)