VISIT Pope Francis will be in Romania from Friday until Sunday
where he will be visiting capital city Bucharest and the cities of Iasi, in
north-east, Blaj and Sumuleu Ciuc, in central Romania. On Thursday, the Pope
posted a brief message on a social network, in which he announced the believers
of the event, asking them to pray for him. The first security measures, imposed
by the Pope’s visit to Romania, have already been implemented in capital
Bucharest. Courses have been suspended in several schools while parking is
banned in the areas the Pontiff is going to get involved in public activities.
On Friday, the day of his arrival, courses will be suspended in all schools in
Bucharest. This is the second visit paid by a Pontiff to Romania after the one
of Pope John Paul ll two decades ago, which was a first for a country with an
Orthodox majority.
PRESIDENT Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis on Thursday announced he summoned the
parliamentary parties next week for talks to decide on how to put into practice
the outcome of the referendum on May 26th, when 6.5 million
Romanians answered ‘yes’ to the changes in the country’s justice system.
Iohannis blamed the government for what happened in the Diaspora during the
European Parliament elections and the referendum. The Romanian Minister of the
Interior, Carmen Dan and the country’s Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu
announced they would not resign as they don’t feel responsible for the situation
created. However, the Romanian president said he didn’t call on them to tender
their resignations, he called for their sacking. Tens of thousands Romanians
abroad spent hours in queues to be able to cast their ballot and some of them
were even unable to vote. The president said he would set up a committee to
identify major issues and present their solutions to the authorities, which can
adopt regulations such as Parliament, the Government and the Permanent
Electoral Authority.
WEATHER The weather is to remain unstable
in most of Romania’s regions until Monday morning. Heavy rainfalls,
thunderstorms and gale-force winds are expected in almost all regions except
for the country’s north-west and south-east. Minimum temperatures will be
ranging between 10 and 19 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperatures will be
between 19 and 27 degrees Celsius.
COMMEMORATION Sighetu Marmatiei, in north-western Romania, on Thursday hosted
events commemorating the Jews deported from Transylvania and Maramures 75 years
ago, when these Romanian provinces were under Hungarian occupation. Attending
are representatives of the Presidential Administration, members of the
diplomatic corps and of the Jewish communities. 131,600 Jews, men, women and
children, were deported from the area and most of them exterminated in the
Auschwitz – Birkenau concentration camp in the spring of 1944. One of Sighet’s
Holocaust survivors is the winner of the Nobel Prize Elie Wiesel, in the honour
of whom the local authorities have set up a memorial house.
(translated bill)