Radio România Internațional

Tag: presidential elections

  • January 17, 2025

    January 17, 2025

     

    RUSSIA The Romanian ministry of foreign affairs firmly condemns the Russian forces’ irresponsible attacks that violate all the norms of international law, and emphasises that Russia’s illegal and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine generates risks for the entire region. The statement was made as the monitoring and surveillance systems of Romania’s defence ministry Friday morning noted violations of Romanian airspace, in Tulcea county, after Russian forces resumed their drone attacks on civilian targets and port infrastructure in Ukraine. ‘Respect for sovereignty, security and peace are obligations that the Russian Federation violates systematically and without provocation. The persistent aggressive actions, the illegal occupation of some of the neighboring territories and the illegal full-scale war that Russia has been waging for almost 3 years against a sovereign neighbor are a persistent and serious threat not only to Ukraine but to the entire Black Sea region and NATO’s eastern flank,’ the foreign ministry says. The foreign ministry and the defence ministry also mention that they have been informing NATO in real time about the situations caused by these attacks, and remain in permanent contact with it.

     

    PROTESTS Several thousand police officers and employees from defence, public order and national security institutions, as well as reserve officers from all over Romania take part in a protest in Bucharest today. They are unhappy with a government order that has significantly reduced their incomes. The act scraps overtime pay and payments for days worked on weekends or public holidays. The protesters argue that the income of operational police officers will be severely affected, with decreases ranging between EUR 200 and 2,000. The participants are marching towards the ministry of finance, the ministry of justice, the labour ministry, and the interior ministry, with the government headquarters as their final destination.

     

    ELECTIONS The first round of the presidential elections in Romania will take place on May 4, and the second round on May 18, the government has decided. Stricter rules have also been set for the election campaign, especially regulating online campaigns. Failure to comply with them may entail fines for major online platforms of up to 5% of their turnover. Romanians in the diaspora will still have 3 days to vote, but on the last day, that is, on Sunday, polling stations will close at 9:00 p.m. Romanian time, regardless of the local time zone. The new provisions have been criticised by several NGOs. The presidential election was cancelled at the end of last year by the Constitutional Court, on grounds that the election process had been flawed.

     

    FLU Flu vaccination remains the easiest, safest and most effective protection method against seasonal diseases, Romanian doctors reiterate amid increases in the number of respiratory infections. Specialists emphasise that as the percentage of the vaccinated population increased, flu viruses spread less in communities decreases. A National Institute for Public Health report shows that the number of people diagnosed with respiratory infections has doubled, with almost 91,000 cases reported in the last week. There are almost 600 patients diagnosed with clinical flu and over 200 for whom lab tests have confirmed infection with the flu virus, most of them in Bucharest, Cluj, Braşov, Constanţa, Alba and Galaţi. Five more people have died from the flu, bringing the death toll since the beginning of the season up to 9.

     

    MIDDLE EAST Israel and Hamas have officially signed a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza, after overcoming last-minute disputes. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the Security Cabinet and the government are meeting later today to ratify the document. The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he expects the implementation of the agreement to begin on Sunday as planned, with the release of the first 3 Israeli hostages. At least one of the far-right Israeli ministers who oppose the agreement has resigned. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Israel, political life in Israel is shaping up to be troubled, with a great potential for surprises and even changes.

     

    TENNIS The Romanian tennis players Gabriela Ruse and Jaqueline Cristian, in separate pairs, qualified for the second round of the women’s doubles event at the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, after winning their respective matches on Friday in Melbourne. Ruse and Ukraine’s Marta Kostiuk won against the Australians Destanee Aiuava and Maddison Inglis 6-4, 7-6 (7/2), and in the second round they will face strong opponents in Elise Mertens (Belgium) and Ellen Perez (Australia), seeded 6th. Jaqueline Cristian and her Italian partner Camilla Rosatello defeated Cristina Bucşa (Spain) / Iana Sizikova (Russia) 6-2, 6-7 (2/7), 6-4. Cristian and Rosatello will next face Leylah Fernandez (Canada) and Nadia Kicenok (Ukraine), seeded 16th. In another first-round match in the women’s doubles, Monica Niculescu and Sofia Kenin (US) were defeated by Miyu Kato (Japan) / Renata Zarazua (Mexico), 6-4, 6-4. In the men’s doubles, the Romanian-Argentine pair Victor Cornea / Mariano Navone were defeated in the second round by Germany’s Kevin Krawietz / Tim Puetz, 4-6, 6-1. (AMP)

  • Fourteen candidates in the presidential race

    Fourteen candidates in the presidential race

     

    The most intense competition in the busiest election year Romania has seen in the last two decades is about the presidential seat. The first round of the presidential elections is taking place on 24 November and the decisive round two weeks later, on 8 December. Fourteen candidates are in the race, just like 5 years ago, 10 of them backed by political parties and 4 running as independents.

    MEP Diana Şoşoacă, the leader of SOS Romania, a representative of the sovereignist, anti-western and pro-Russian movement, was banned for running by the Constitutional Court of Romania on grounds that her statements and behaviour hurt the constitutional pillars underlying the country’s membership to European and Euro-Atlantic structures. The Court’s decision sparked a wave of reactions on the political scene, mostly critical, despite the fact that Şoşoacă is seen as a toxic politician because of her aggressive language and the ideas she promotes. The sovereignist and nationalist movement is not, however, without a representative in the race for president, thanks to George Simion, the leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians.

    Other candidates include the current prime minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, as the most prominent candidate on the left. Opinion polls show he may be ahead in the first round, and he is confident he will win the second round as well, despite Romania having elected a candidate on the right of the political spectrum for the last 20 years.

    Things are however more complicated this year on the right. The candidate proposed by the National Liberal Party, the biggest party on the right, is the party’s not very charismatic leader and former prime minister Nicolae Ciucă. He is behind his party’s numbers in opinion polls and may not even enter the second round. Opinion polls indicate that the Liberals and their candidate are thus being punished for their government coalition with the Social Democrats, with voters seeing their attempt to distance themselves politically from the latter but without leaving the government as not very credible.

    Also from the right, the candidate of the Save Romania Union, Elena Lasconi, the mayor of a small town in the south of the country, is convinced she will make it to the second round and is calling on the right to join forces.

    Former NATO deputy secretary general Mircea Geoana, who is running as an independent, is another candidate with chances to make it to the second round. He says he has learnt from the mistakes of the past, an allusion to his dramatic loss of the presidential elections back in 2009 as leader of the Social Democratic Party. He talks about the need for change and says he is the most competent candidate in areas that are increasingly relevant in the current geostrategic climate.

    The list of candidates for president also includes a former justice minister and foreign affairs minister who is now an independent, Cristian Diaconescu, and the former prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party Ludovic Orban.

    The second round of the presidential elections ends the election marathon this year, which began in June with the local and European Parliament elections. The elections for the Romanian parliament will take place on the National Day, on 1st December.

  • August 26, 2019 UPDATE

    August 26, 2019 UPDATE

    POLITICS – The Alliance of Liberals and
    Democrats will withdraw from the governing coalition, its leader Calin
    Popescu-Tariceanu announced on Monday. The decision follows after the
    Social-Democratic Party, the Alliance’s ruling coalition partners, did not
    support their claim to reshuffle the government and present a new governing
    program, Tariceanu says. Tariceanu will also withdraw from the presidential
    race, while his party will support the candidacy of Mircea Diaconu, who has
    also rallied the support of the Pro Romania Party. Calin Popescu-Tariceanu will
    also resign from the position of Senate Speaker. In turn, Prime Minister and
    Social Democrat leader Viorica Dancila said her party will stay in power. The Prime Minister on Tuesday will make new nominations to replace the outgoing ministers from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats.




    ELECTIONS – The
    Romanian Government’s decisions regarding the presidential election in November
    enter into force this week. The document includes information and regulations
    regarding the vote in Romania and abroad. The deadline for the submission of
    candidacies is September 22. The election campaign will start on October 12.
    The first round of elections will be held on November 10 and the second one on
    November 24.




    DIPLOMACY -
    Bucharest is hosting for four days the annual meeting of Romanian diplomacy,
    staged by the Romanian Foreign Ministry. Approached at the meeting will be the
    future of the EU and its global role, the trans-Atlantic ties, the ties with
    the eastern neighbors, European affairs, Romania’s political and economic ties
    with countries in the Asia-Pacific area, the Middle East, Africa and Latin
    America, humanitarian aid and the contribution to world peace and security.
    Attending the event are Foreign Minister Ramona Manescu, minister-delegate for
    European affairs George Ciamba and heads of Romania’s consular and diplomatic missions
    abroad. The special guests of this year’s meeting are the foreign ministers of
    Bulgaria and Moldova and the Croatian state secretary for European affairs. On
    Monday, the Foreign Ministry and the UN Development Program signed a
    cooperation memorandum.




    MILITARY – A new
    detachment of the Romanian Gendarmerie is leaving on Tuesday to Afghanistan for
    a six-month NATO mission. The 16 officers and agents will provide training,
    counseling and assistance to Afghan security forces and institutions. Attending
    the departure ceremony on Monday, Inspector General with the Romanian
    Gendarmerie Constantin Florea said the participation of Romanian gendarmes in
    missions in Afghanistan started in 2011, with notable results prompting
    international bodies to call on Romania to contribute special forces to
    training and counseling missions. So far Romanian gendarmes have helped train
    over 17,000 Afghan soldiers and police officers.




    MINISTERS – Prime
    Minister Viorica Dancila on Monday submitted the proposals for new ministers
    decided at Saturday’s National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic
    Party to President Klaus Iohannis. The party’s secretary general, Mihai Fifor
    will be heading the Interior Ministry, Ana Birchall will become Deputy Prime
    Minister for Strategic Partnerships while MP Iulian Iancu will be Deputy Prime
    Minister in charge of economic affairs. Dana Girbovan was nominated for the
    Justice Ministry, but the move has been harshly criticized by the opposition
    who emphasized the fact that Girbovan was a staunch supporter of the justice
    reforms that had been proposed by PSD and ALDE with the alleged intention to
    gain control over the magistrates and hinder the anti-graft fight.




    G7 – World
    leaders gathered in Biarritz for the last day of the G7 Summit on Monday. UN
    Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on the international community to
    take action to protect the Amazon region, swept by wildfire. French president Emmanuel
    Macron said the industrialized states of G7 have agreed on a 20-million-dollar
    fund which states in the Amazon can use to combat wildfire. President Macron also
    said an international initiative for the Amazon at UN level will be launched,
    looking into ways to reforest the affected areas.




    VOLEYBALL – The
    Romanian national women’s volleyball team defeated Estonia 3-1 on Sunday in
    Budapest, Hungary, in Group C of the European Championship. This is the second
    consecutive win of the Romanians, after defeating the host country’s team on
    Saturday, 3-1. The Netherlands is first in the group, with 6 points in 2
    matches, followed by Romania, with 6 points in 3 matches, Croatia, Hungary,
    Azerbaijan and Estonia. On Tuesday Romania will take on Croatia and on Thursday
    it will play Azerbaijan.


    (Translated by V.
    Palcu)

  • May 23, 2017 UPDATE

    May 23, 2017 UPDATE

    MANCHESTER ATTACK – A suicide bomber is the perpetrator of Monday nights terrorist attack on Manchester Arena at the end of a concert, the British PM Theresa May announced on Tuesday. The attack, claimed by the IS terror group, killed 22 people and wounded some 60 others, some of whom are in a serious condition. Many of the victims are children. The presumed attacker was identified as Salman Abedi, 22, Reuters reports, quoting several American officials. Born in Manchester, he was the son on Libyan refugees who had come to Britain to escape the Gaddafi regime. Security was tightened in Manchester and in the British capital, London. The Conservative PM Theresa May and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn suspended their campaigns for the early parliamentary elections of June 8. This is the worst attack in Britain since the one in London on July 7, 2005, when 52 people died and nearly 700 were wounded. Two months ago, a radical Islamist rammed a vehicle into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing 5 people, including a Romanian. Bucharest joined the international community in condemning Mondays attack, and expressed solidarity with the British people. According to the authorities, there are no Romanians among the victims.




    SALARIES – On Tuesday the Romanian Senate passed the unified pay scale bill, which is supposed to raise salaries gradually for state employees until 2022. The Labour Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu told Senators that the bill was correlated with the new Fiscal Code, and that it would provide a 56% average salary increase. The minister explained that the law was necessary in order to fix a dysfunctional public wage system. The bill goes next to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower chamber. Public administration trade unions expressed their dissatisfaction at the bill, and announced widespread protests next week across the country, including the capital. Union leaders said they expect 120,000 to take part.




    BY-ELECTIONS – In Romania, in 49 localities in 32 counties, local by-elections will be held on June 11, for mayor posts, given that some of the incumbent officials were elected into Parliament in December 2016, and others were sentenced for various offences and can no longer act as mayors. The election campaign begins on May 27 and ends on June 10. Eligible voters in the local elections are only those citizens who live or reside in the respective constituency.




    ECONOMY – The Romanian economic model within the EU was a topic for debate at a conference held at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest by the Association for Economic and Social Studies and Forecasts. Representatives of the government, business people, academics, and civil society activists presented their perspective for the next 10 years with regard to standards of living, education and workforce. According to the latest statistics, Romania has the highest economic growth in the Union. At the same time, the EC has warned Bucharest on the risk of overstepping the stated budget on medium term.




    INVESTIGATION – The former Social Democratic Party chairman Mircea Geoana, defeated in the presidential elections in 2009, and his campaign manager, former Social Democratic MP Viorel Hrebenciuc, were heard on Tuesday by the Parliament committee investigating the elections of 2009. After the hearings, Geoana said there had been a deliberate and coordinated effort at top level to influence the outcome of the 2009 election. In turn, Viorel Hrebenciuc said there had been problems with the polling stations abroad and that he suspected the election had been rigged. On Monday, the committee heard the vice-president of the Permanent Election Authority, Marian Muhulet, and the controversial journalist Dan Andronic, whose allegations led to the creation of the committee. The latter said he has no further information beyond what he had published, and no evidence that the 2009 elections had been tampered with. Andronic used to be a political adviser to former president Traian Basescu, who won the 2009 election. Andronic claimed that, on the night of the second round of elections in 2009, he met in an informal setting with the Prosecutor General Laura Codruta Kovesi, the former director of intelligence George Maior and his first deputy, Florian Coldea, and that the meeting looked like the gathering of a crisis committee. He further claimed that all the people mentioned risked being fired in case Geoana won the elections.




    OO7 – The famous British actor Roger Moore, 89, died on Tuesday in Switzerland after a brief battle with cancer, The Telegraph reports. He shot to fame with his part as agent 007 in several films in the James Bond franchise, between 1973 and 1985. Roger Moore played more than 91 parts in film and television productions, and devoted much of his time to humanitarian work.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • The outcome of the Moldovan presidential elections

    The outcome of the Moldovan presidential elections

    Confirming early opinion polls, the leader of the pro-Russian socialists, Igor Dodon won the first round of Sunday’s presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova, a former Romanian province with a mostly Romanian speaking population. Less predictable was, however, the 10% difference between Dodon and his contender, the pro-Western Maia Sandu. Soon after the voting ended, Igor Dodon has said: “This election has clearly proven that the leader of the socialist opposition enjoys most of Moldovans’ trust.”



    In turn, Maia Sandu, a former education minister, has made no effort to hide her satisfaction at a second round of voting being held: “I believe that today we can celebrate a first victory. We have taken a first step towards a dignified life that we all have the right to, here, in the Republic of Moldova.”



    Most commentators believe that two intense weeks will follow, during which the two candidates will have to make sure they can further enjoy the support of their electorate and, if possible, increase their number of voters. From this viewpoint, commentators say Maia Sandu stands good chances to win over more supporters. Of the seven presidential candidates eliminated from the race after the first round, there is only one, Dmitri Ciubasenco that shares Dodon’s pro-Russian views. All others are supporters of a pro-Western stand. That is why it is expected that promoters of Moldova’s reunification with Romania, such as Mihai Ghimpu and Ana Gutu as well as the former PM Iurie Leanca, who had signed, two years before, the Moldova-EU association and free trade agreement, should urge their supporters to vote Maia Sandu in the second round.



    According to sociologists, Maia Sandu has to convince young people to go to the polls. In the first round, more than half of the potential voters showed no interest in the election, although it was the first time in the past 20 years when citizens had the chance to vote the head of state directly, instead of being nominated by parliament. The voter turnout rate was 49%, the lowest in the country’s history. Almost 30% of voters, who feel closer to Moscow, were aged 56 to 70, while the young people aged 18 to 25, supporting Western values, represented only 10% of the voters. Radio Romania correspondents in Chisinau quoted pundits as saying that the low voter turnout has been triggered by the citizens’ disappointment at the situation in their country.



    The second round of voting is decisive not only in political terms but also in geopolitical terms. The victory of Dodon, an anti-Romanian and anti-European politician, guided by Moscow, would bury Moldova’s European aspirations indefinitely and fulfil his wish to integrate the country in the Russia-Belarus –Kazakhstan Union. This would make useless the 7-year long efforts deployed by pro-European forces that have been ruling the country since 2009, to take Chisinau out of Moscow’s orbit and get it closer to Europe.


    (Translated by Elena Enache)



  • Analyzing the Romanian Vote Abroad

    Analyzing the Romanian Vote Abroad

    The resounding failure of organizing the presidential election for Romanians abroad still hits the headlines in this country. More than three weeks away from the first round, which was held on November 2, and 10 days from the second, on November 16, politicians both in power and in the opposition are still running evaluations, taking measures, or, as the case may be, producing excuses and looking for people to blame. The scandal was of such a scope that it caused two foreign ministers to resign, Titus Corlatean after the first round, and Teodor Melescanu after the second, an investigation by the General Prosecutor’s Office, lively debates in Parliament, and the setting up of a special parliamentary committee to come up with proposals to amend the standing election legislation, believed to be obsolete.



    The scandal was triggered by a bad management of polls abroad, which were dismally below capacity, violating the citizens’ fundamental constitutional right to vote. Many of the 380,000 Romanians who actually managed to stamp their ballots had to stand in huge lines for hours on end to do so. The images of the queues were reminiscent of many of the humiliations of the defunct communist regime.



    Even so, those people were the lucky ones, ironically. Many of their co-nationals were not that lucky. If the authorities were not in a hurry to change the election legislation in the 25th hour, between the two rounds of voting, at least they are attempting to do so now. Starting Wednesday, the special parliamentary committee appointed to amend the election legislation started analyzing proposals. It will lay down the principles and priorities for each type of election — local, the national and European parliaments, as well as presidential.



    Addressing Parliament on Tuesday, Prime Minister Victor Ponta said he regretted the fact that so many Romanians could not exercise their right to vote, and that this may have cost him the presidential election. He proposed measures to reform the legislation, such as absentee voting by mail or on-line, as well as the establishment of an apolitical institution mandated to handle everything involved in preparing the elections. The main party in the opposition, the National Liberal Party, whose candidate, Klaus Iohannis, actually won the presidential election, did not seem ready to let the matter go easily, however. The Liberals, speaking through MP Ludovic Orban, are clamoring for Prime Minister Ponta to resign, accusing him of obstructing the Romanians’ vote abroad through inaction.

  • Measures to improve voting abroad

    Measures to improve voting abroad

    An unexpected and loud battle of press releases arose between institutions in Bucharest between the two rounds of presidential elections. The chaos that ensued at the polls abroad, where Romanian citizens eager to exercise their civic right to vote waited in line for hours and, in the case of many thousands, did not even manage to vote at all, sparked a conflict between the Central Election Bureau and the Foreign Ministry, which passed the blame on each other. Monday was the climax of the crisis.



    Criticised by the opposition, the president’s office, the media and the Romanians abroad for his incompetence or ill will, Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean eventually resigned. He insisted that he made the decision so as not to be forced to break the law and invoked a ruling by the Central Election Bureau that did not confirm the existence of a legal basis to set up additional polling stations abroad.



    On Tuesday night, the Central Election Bureau contradicted him once again and repeated in a press release that the management and creation of polling stations abroad is the sole responsibility of the foreign service. At the same time, the Bureau stuck to its guns, saying that there is no legal impediment to create additional polls for voters in other countries.



    The hot potato is now in the hands of Corlatean’s successor, Teodor Melescanu. A career diplomat and a former head of the foreign intelligence service, he also ran for president in the first round before being again appointed foreign ministry after almost 20 years, at a very tense moment. Soon after taking office, he said his ministry’s cabinet is already doing its best to improve voting in the second round of elections. Teodor Melescanu:



    “By simply evaluating some simulations we ran, the reduction in the time it takes for a citizen to vote, as a result of these measures, would allow at least a doubling of the number of people able to vote.”



    One of the measures taken is making available on the Foreign Ministry’s website of a special form which voters can download and fill in before going to the polls, but which they have to sign and date before the voting staff. Also, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has supplied a list of 800 employees available for assisting the voting staff, and the Central Election Bureau has already picked 120 of them. Each polling station abroad will have seven voting booths and seven stamps, the maximum allowed under the law.

  • The race for president of Romania

    The race for president of Romania

    Social Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta, with 40.44% of the votes, and the leader of the Liberal Party Klaus Iohannis, with 30.37% of the votes, together won approximately three quarters of the votes cast on Sunday, the rest being distributed among the remaining 12 candidates. One of them is Calin Popescu Tariceanu, a former leader of the National Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Romania between 2004-2008, at a time when Romania joined the European Union and registered a record economic growth.



    Victor Ponta, one of the two candidates left in the presidential race, has stated that if he becomes president, Tariceanu, who got 5.36% of the votes cast on Sunday, would be his first choice for the position of prime minister, but that he is also considering a few other options:



    “I believe that the best solution for the position of Prime Minister now is Calin Popescu Tariceanu. This would be my first option. Also, I’ve talked with my colleagues whether, in the coming days or weeks, we should send a clear signal with regard to maintaining the fiscal and budget discipline, and in this case I do not exclude the possibility of having a technocrat as prime-minister, namely the first vice-governor of the Central Bank, Florin Georgescu. If, on the other hand, there appears a strategic security threat for Romania and we need to show that we are committed to the country’s democratic development and its international obligations, we can also consider George Maior for the office of prime minister, following his resignation as director of the Romanian Intelligence Office after the elections, as he said he would do.”



    Besides Tariceanu, Ponta is also sure of the support of two other former opponents, namely the leader of the populist Greater Romania Party, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, who won 3.68% of the votes, and the former head of the Foreign Intelligence Office, Teodor Melescanu, who only got 1% of the votes.



    Ponta’s rival in the second round run-off, Klaus Iohannis has announced he will not negotiate with his former counter-candidates for their support for the second round:



    “I will not trade Romanians’ votes as if they were a commodity, this is simply unacceptable. This is why I will not negotiate with the candidates that did not make it into the second round, as there is nothing to negotiate. These votes are not in their pockets. These votes belong to Romanian voters. I will not become involved in political bargaining and promise positions of prime minister or presidential advisor in exchange for votes. I simply cannot do that.”



    Iohannis says, though, that in the final round he is counting on the support of all the parties affiliated to the centre-right European People’s Party: the National Liberal Party and the Liberal Democratic Party making up the Christian Liberal Alliance; the People’s Movement Party and the Christian Democratic Peasant Party, whose joint candidate, Elena Udrea, won 5% of the votes; as well as the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, which commonly enjoys the support of around 6% of the voters.