Category: Today in the News

Monsignor Vladimir Ghika, the Romanian Roman-Catholic priest whose martyrdom for faith was recognised by Pope Francis on March 27th, will be beatified on August 31st in a solemn Mass. Beatification, the act through which the Pope grants the title “Blessed” to a Catholic martyr or to a Christian who practiced all virtues, recognises that person’s capacity to intercede on behalf of the people who pray in his name.

This will be the first beatification ceremony held in Bucharest, and is seen as the most important event for the Romanian Catholic Church, after the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1999. Three cardinals and over two hundred bishops and priests, as well as thousands of believers, are expected to take part in the event.

Monsignor Vladimir Ghika was born in 1873 and was the grandson of the last ruler of the Principality of Moldavia. Baptised an Orthodox, he turned to the Roman-Catholic church at the age of 29, to be, as he himself put it, a better Orthodox. He studied in France and Italy, devoting most of his life to helping the needy, which is why he was dubbed “the Prince of the poor.” In Romania, he opened the first hospital free of charge and opened the first ambulance service.

In 1939, World War II found him in Romania, which he refused to leave, in order to encourage and help the poor and the sick, including during the Allied bombings of Bucharest. After the communists took power, the same reasons prompted him to turn down the offer of leaving the country together with the Royal family. In November 1952 he was charged with high treason, arrested and held in prison, near Bucharest, where he was threatened, beaten and tortured. He died in prison 2 years later, because of the inhuman treatment.

An interesting thing is that although Vladimir Ghika was a Catholic priest, he was granted by Pope Pius XI the privilege of holding religious services both in the Latin and the Byzantine rite. He was a pioneer in many respects, and his work transcended the boundaries of the various denominations and the spirit of his time, paving the way for today’s ecumenism. Once granted the title “Blessed,” Monsignor Vladimir Ghika will be included in the ranks of Catholic saints and will be celebrated in the calendar of the local Catholic Church on May 16th, the day of his martyrdom.

Two other Romanian Christian martyrs have been beatified by the Catholic Church, further to their persecution by the communist regime.

The Superior Council of Magistracy in Romania has given green light to slashing special pensions for magistrates who have been convicted for corruption in its latest plenary session. The decision applies for any actions related to magistrates’ work and carried out deliberately, and for other crimes that dent the prestige of the Romanian judiciary. The draft law is to apply to all magistrates who have been given convictions to this day, Justice Minister Robert Cazanciuc has said.

Robert Cazanciuc: “Following a series of debates the Superior Council of Magistracy has put forth a couple of technical suggestions which will be analyzed by the Ministry. We have agreed on a number of categories of crimes. We have also settled that once it comes into force, the law will apply to all magistrates convicted for corruption. They will be losing their pensions as soon as the law comes into force”.

Cazanciuc also made it clear that the law has no retroactive effect, in the sense that no magistrate will have to pay back the pension received so far. Rather, magistrates’ pensions will no longer be calculated according to special laws. At present, magistrates’ pensions stand at around 15 to 16 thousand Lei, that is 3.500 euros. The decision to eliminate these special pensions follows a series of scandals involving top-level magistrates who got final convictions.

On August 13, Prime Minister Victor Ponta told a television station that the Ministry of Justice was ready to draft a law in that respect. If the judiciary were cleaned up, Victor Ponta argued, this would benefit Romania and magistrates who are honest, since magistrates are generally seen as corrupt. Some 90% of magistrates are honest, Ponta went on to say, although we should not pretend we don’t know, for instance, that property restitution or public procurement agreements take years to be signed off due to conflicting rulings.

Over the last 20 years the Romanian judiciary has been constantly marred by cases of corrupt judges, which have recently multiplied. Florin Costiniu, a former High Court judge, is but one example of corrupt judges. In early 2010 Constiniu was convicted for taking a 200-thousand-euro bribe to rule in favour of a well-known senator. Another recent headline-grabbing scandal is the case of a Court of Appeal judge, who allegedly took bribes of up to 1.2 million euros in exchange for favourable rulings in criminal cases.

Folk music vocalist Grigore Lese, rowers Elisabeta Lipa and Ivan Patzaichin, tennis player Ilie Nastase, caricaturist Stefan Popa Popas, athletes Iolanda Balas Soter and Gabriela Szabo and panpipe player Gheorghe Zamfir on Monday received their passports of ambassadors of Romanian tourism. They have pledged to turn to good account the image capital they enjoy, in order to develop local tourism, under the program “Romania gets promoted by its values.” Attending the ceremony, the minister delegate for SMEs, the Business Environment and Tourism, Maria Grapini, defined the program initiated by the government as being meant to rediscover Romanian values, both human and material.

Maria Grapini: “The project is entitled ‘Romania gets promoted by its values’. Actually, before launching it, I wondered why we, the Romanians, don’t know how to treasure human values. This goes for natural values, too- but we are now talking about human resources, which represent the most important resource, from my point of view.”

The eight ambassadors have called on the authorities to show transparency, allot funds to promotion and recognize the elites. Under the program, they will promote a certain segment of the local tourism industry, starting with rural tourism, spa tourism, cultural tourism, up to ecological and historical tourism.

Maria Grapini has told Radio Romania the message that decision-makers want to convey through this program to the Romanian and foreign public opinion: “The message is very clear: these true values, acknowledged at European and international level can be the best promoters of Romania’s image, because, unfortunately, Romania is not perceived as it should be, with its real values. It will be these powerful personalities who will convince people, easier than politicians or administrative institutions do.”

Presenting its personal project to support Romanian tourism, multiple world and Olympic champion Ivan Patzaichin said, during the ceremony, that he will try to lay out in the Danube Delta the biggest eco-tourism centre in the world. In her turn, athlete Gabriela Szabo has said Romania is a country of great interest for foreigners, but which is, unfortunately, little known. In his turn, Romanian tennis player Ilie Nastase believes that in order to re-launch Romanian tourism, we now need more investments in infrastructure as well as changes for the better, especially at the level of quality services.

Egypt, the country that was in the frontline of the so-called “Arab Spring,” is currently experiencing the most violent domestic conflict since the ousting of dictator Hosni Mubarak. The death toll of this dramatic past week reaches hundreds of people, mostly civilians, dead in the clashes between the supporters of the dismissed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, on the one hand, and its opponents and police, on the other hand. Many of Morsi’s supporters are members of the Muslim Brotherhood. They want the democratically elected president to return to office, and they seem determined to carry on their protests, no matter the consequences.

The response of the authorities was firm and prompt, and according to a growing number of Western voices, disproportionately harsh. The army, which seized control over the country, threatened to shoot anyone who attacked public institutions. Concerned with the situation in Egypt, the international community has repeatedly called for restraint and condemned the bloodshed. The UN Security Council urged the parties to refrain from actions that may escalate the conflict and deepen the crisis. In the USA, president Obama denounced the violence and called on the authorities to show respect for human rights. The White House cancelled the joint American-Egyptian military exercise scheduled for next month. The European Union and several Muslim countries have criticized the crackdown on pro-Morsi protesters.

In line with the position taken by the EU, Romania has expressed its concern with the developments in Egypt and deplored the loss of human lives and the material damage in this country. The Foreign Ministry supports the message sent by the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, regarding the need for all parties to show restraint so as to put an end to the violent clashes and restore peace. Bucharest also reiterates the need for human and civil rights to be respected, and encourages the dialogue required for the transition to democracy to be resumed.

On the other hand, the Romanian Foreign Ministry warns against the dangers that Romanian citizens may be facing in Egypt and urges them to avoid the areas where government buildings are located and where protests are taking place. The Romanian citizens who are in Egypt are advised to notify the Romanian embassy of their presence in this country and to communicate their coordinates so that they may be contacted in case of emergency.

The trial of the Romanians involved in the stealing of seven paintings from the Kunsthal Gallery in Rotterdam, which started on Tuesday, has already been postponed until September 10th, because of procedural flaws. Six people are accused of participation or accessory to what the media has dubbed the robbery of the century. On the night of October 15th 2012, famous works by painters such as Picasso, Matisse, Monet and Gaugain were stolen from the Dutch museum. The masterpieces were allegedly brought to Romania, where some of them were turned into ashes by the mother of the main suspect, as she herself testified.

The initial scenario, however, seems to be contradicted by the expertise carried out by experts with Romania’s National History Museum. According to their analysis, the ashes collected from the woman’s home are indeed consistent with burned paintings. Also, the nails found in the ash are an indication that the paintings were made earlier than late 19th century. Still, the Director of the Museum that analyzed the ash material has stated that nobody could firmly state that those were remnants of the stolen paintings. Actually, the defendants’ lawyers have contested the expertise conducted in Romania and have stated they want the evidence to be analyzed by the Louvre. The lawyers claim that their clients have told them that the paintings stolen from the Rotterdam Museum were not burned and that they are actually waiting for the right procedural framework to surrender them to Dutch authorities. According to the lawyer of the main suspect, the latter allegedly proposed a deal, under which he would surrender five paintings in exchange for a sentence that he would carry out in the Netherlands, where aggravated theft is not that severely punished.

However, the lawyer, who is a well known figure in Romania, could not state for sure that his client can really produce the five paintings. Even so, hopes that at least part of the stolen paintings have been saved from destruction are growing. On the other hand, the fate of another two paintings is still a mystery, and investigators fear that they have indeed been burned. This robbery also raises questions as to the way in which such valuable pieces, worth over 18 million Euros in total, were guarded at the Kunsthal Gallery in Rotterdam. The investigation started by the Dutch authorities is due to provide answers to these questions, as the Romanian lawyer has also stated. According to him, those found guilty of breaching security regulations would have to be punished just like the perpetrators proper. The robbery of the century thus promises good material for what could become the trial of the century.

The main message sent by Gabor Vona to the 1.4 million Hungarian ethnics in Romania was the need to carry on the struggle for regional autonomy within the Romanian state. The former leader of the Hungarian Guard extremist movement, banned in 2009, said it was Hungary’s duty to plead for autonomy before the EU and that Jobbik party will defend the rights and interests of the Hungarians in Transylvania, even if that entailed a conflict with Romania.

The Romanian government was quick to respond, and firmly condemned Vona’s statements, mentioning that autonomy on ethnic criteria is not among the European standard policies for national minorities. At the same time, Bucharest views the statement about a possible conflict between Hungary and Romania as extremely serious, obsolete and condemnable.

The President of Romania, Traian Basescu, also made a point of expressing his views on the statements that several Hungarian politicians made repeatedly, on Romanian territory. According to the head of the Romanian state, a number of practices reminding of Stalin’s era have turned Hungary into a factor of instability in the region.

Traian Basescu: “Several countries are concerned with Budapest’s aggressive minority policy. Romania has so far been reserved about it, but we believe a point has been reached when we need to leave our reserves aside and when Budapest must be taught its place.”

In response to the statements made by the Romanian president, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry said Hungary was committed to maintaining stability in the region and to guaranteeing the rights of ethnic minorities. President Basescu’s harsh statements took the leaders of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania by surprise, particularly considering that this party supported Basescu in the latest presidential election. Here is the leader of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor:

Kelemen Hunor: “When a head of state makes such a statement, things become complicated, and we don’t need this, particularly when it comes to Romania and Hungary and the relations between them. However, any statement or position of the kind Vona made must be denounced.”

This indicates that politicians in Romania have at least one common view, namely that in the 21st Century nationalist and extremist parties are no longer acceptable in any society.

Statistical figures recently made public by the World Labor Organization show that over 70 million young people are jobless and the situation is largely due to their lack of experience. Estimates show that, for this reason, it is three times more difficult for a young person to get a job than for an adult.

Paradoxically, the country most affected by high unemployment rates among young people are those who boast developed economies. In the EU for instance, in such countries as Greece or Spain, over 50% of the young people are jobless. Because of this situation, the International Youth Day, celebrated every year on August the 12th is not exactly a moment of joy, just like in the past years, since the economic crisis emerged, translating into high unemployment rates, the uncertainty of keeping a job, for those who manage to find one.

Discontents about very small salaries come to complete the overall feeling of young people the world over this year, when it’s 14 years since the UN General Assembly adopted the initiative to mark the International Youth Day. Alarmed by the situation, the EU leaders have recently agreed to allotting 6 billion Euros in two years alone for the employment of young people.

However, the initiative is regarded with skepticism by John Springford, a well-known economic analyst, in an interview on Voice of America. According to him, we need long-term solutions and not money getting dumped on the problem. John Springford says that at a simple calculation, we see that some 1,000 are allotted for each young person. He believes that such problems should be solved primarily by pursuing macro-economic and structural policies, and not by taking conjectural measures.

The president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, however, calls for patience: He says the leaders are well aware of the fact that it takes time to implement such measures and their will not bear fruit immediately.

According to the figures released by the World Labor Organization, a special phenomenon is registered in Romania-15% of the young people are overeducated, as compared to the requirements or demands of the market. They have graduated from technical schools or faculties, are very well trained but they fail to find a job.

That is why, they are satisfied even if they find a job well below their level of qualification or leave the country, in search of a job abroad. “I ask you (…) to be revolutionaries, to swim against the tide; yes, I am asking you to rebel!” is the message launched by Pope Fracisc, who called on the young people to build the world they want. Recently, at the World Catholic Youth Days in Brazil, the Pope called on the young people to leave the hermetical groups they belong to, to step into the limelight, to take to the streets to fight for their values and beliefs.

The Anonimul International Film Festival, hosted until August 18th by the village of Sfantu Gheorghe has reached its 10th edition. Seven feature films and 40 short-reels are competing for the trophy that will be awarded to the best cinematographic production. In its nine years of existence, the festival has enjoyed the participation of personalities such as directors Peter Greenaway, Ken Loach, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Oscar winner producers. Director Istvan Szabo is the guest of honour this year and will receive the Anonimul Lifetime Achievement Trophy.

The audience will have the opportunity to watch films signed by Szabo, such as Mephisto, Oscar winner in 1982 and Colonel Redl, which won jury’s prize at the Cannes festival in 1985. His latest film, The Door, with Helen Mirren playing the leading part, was presented in the opening of the 2012 Anonimul Festival. This year’s edition was opened on Friday with a film that came as a surprise to the audience at the 2013 Berlinale The Grandmaster directed by Wong Kar Wai. Ending the festival will be Roxanne, by Romanian director Valentin Hotea. The director of the Anonimul Festival, Miruna Berescu, told us about this year’s festival:

“ The most exciting thing about this year’s edition is Isvan Szabo’s participation. Also important is the film that opens the festival, the one that also opened the festival in Berlin, this winter. Another film that we are looking forward to, which can only be seen at this festival, is Behind the Candelabra, by Steven Soderbergh.”

The only Romanian film participating in the Anonimul feature film contest is ‘Matei, a Miner’s child’, by Alexandra Gulea. The film will be screened on the same day as her father’s, director Stere Gulea. His film called ‘I’m an Old Communist Hag’ features Luminita Gheorghiu and Ana Ularu. The 10 edition of the festival was organized, just like before, by the Anonimul Foundation, with support from the National Cinematography Center, the Romanian Film Makers’ Union, the Tulcea County Council, the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Romanian Television. The films will be screened both indoors and outdoors, and admission is free of charge. For people to have easier access to Sfantu Gheorghe, NAVROM has provided additional ships that depart from Tulcea and Mahmudia.

In Romania, the inflation forecast for 2013 and for next year has been lowered to 3.1%, that is by 0.1% compared to previous figures. The Central Bank has analyzed and endorsed the quarterly inflation report, which points to a stronger disinflation process for the forthcoming period and an accelerated economic growth.

Governor Mugur Isarescu: “Our target is 2.5%. As far as our 3.1% forecast goes, we might get closer to that target by the end of the year or even sooner. The main factors that will be keeping inflation down are the prices of foodstuffs and farm products, which will go down in July, August and September, and the fact that last year these prices increased significantly. So the difference will be substantial.”

Mugur Isarescu added that the institution will do its best, using the tools available to it, to ensure that interest rates for loans in the national currency get as close as possible to the rates on foreign currency loans, so that bank clients may choose to borrow lei and thus reduce the risks related to exchange rate variations.

Mugur Isarescu: “The foreign currency resources of many banks are not as steady and low-priced as they used to be. Parent banks have become more cautious, or have problems of their own. Foreign currency loans have a visible, explicit cost, but also a hidden, uncertain cost component, and this is what triggers abusive clauses. By reducing the monetary policy interest rate and assuring adequate cash flows in the market, we will do our best to push interest rates for Romanian currency loans closer to those for foreign currency crediting.”

The new European regulations discourage foreign currency loans, the central bank governor also said. He explained that such loans have an unpredictable and highly dangerous component, which has become evident over the past few years and affected the resources of many Romanians who had thought foreign currency loans are more advantageous. The National Bank has reduced the key interest rate from 5% to an all-time low of 4.5%. At present, the average interest rate on a mortgage-backed loan in lei is 8%, as compared to 4.5% for a similar product in euros. According to analysts, taking out loans in the national currency is by 30% more expensive than in euros.

At the end of last month Romanian authorities, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission agreed on a two-year precautionary loan deal worth 4 billion euros. The IMF board will discuss it in autumn, but in the meantime Romanian newspapers have published a version of the letter of intent that Bucharest plans to send to Washington. The text includes new promises, as well as old ones that have not been kept.

In a nutshell, the Government intends to increase property taxes for owners of apartments used for business purposes; to amend insolvency regulations and the Civil Code; to keep a tight budget deficit, while reorganising the National Fiscal Administration Agency; to speed up public healthcare reforms and sell the minor stakes it holds in several companies. One company to be privatised is the National Freight Railway Corporation, in which the Romanian state still holds most of the shares.

As far as the energy industry is concerned, the Stock Exchange listing of the shares of some local energy giants, scheduled to take place this year, has been postponed to next autumn. One of these companies is Nuclearelectrica, which produces electricity using nuclear power. The Government holds around 90% of the stock, and by the end of September 2014 it intends to launch an initial public offer on 10% of the shares. As for Romania’s largest natural gas producer, Romgaz, which is subordinated to the Economy Ministry, an offer will be launched for 15% of its stock no later than the end of this October. The taxation regime for the securities of companies traded in foreign stock markets is, however, to be clarified, and if necessary new legislation will be endorsed.

By next summer, an initial public offer should also be launched for Electrica, one of the key players in the national energy delivery, supply and service market. The future of five of this company’s six regional maintenance units is rather unclear. At least three, but possibly all of them should be separated from the parent company and sold. And last, but not least, Hidroelectrica, which ranks 7th in a top of the most valuable 100 companies in Romania, will have 10% of its stock listed in the Stock Exchange in late June next year, but a special government order is yet to be issued in this respect.

The participation of Romanian pupils in the International Geography Olympiad, held in Japan between July the 30th and August the 5th, has brought Romania three gold medals and a silver one. Thanks to this achievement, the Romanian pupils have outranked their colleagues from 31 countries, ranking on the first position of the classification on nations, after they held the second position last year. Such good news came also from the Romanian Education Ministry, which announced that the Romanian pupils who participated in the International Astronomy and Astrophysics in Greece brought Romania the best result ever: 5 medals (2 golden medals, two silvers and one bronze).

The high performance and success scored by the Romanian pupils is a constant of their participation in international Olympiads, as every time their return home with medals. Recently, at the International Linguistics Olympiad held in Manchester, a competition in which Romania participated officially for the first time, Romanian pupils ranked third, with two individual mentions. The International Linguistics Olympiad is one of the twelve international science competitions and this year it enjoyed the participation of 138 competitors, from 26 countries, among which Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Singapore, the US and the United Arab Emirates.

In order to approach the problems, subjects or topics at the Olympiads, pupils should make analogies, apply elements of grammar logics and mathematical logics in the process of understanding texts written in unknown languages, starting from the idea that linguistics puts order into thinking and regulates the process of communication by constructing structures which favour the easy learning of any language.

If the Linguistics Olympiad was a first for the Romanians, things are different in the case of Mathematics, for instance, a domain where Romanian pupils boast a long and fruitful participation. This year, they won three silver medals and three bronzes in late June, in the Columbian town of Santa Monica. From Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which hosted the International Chemistry Olympiad in April, Romanian pupils came home with a golden medal, two silvers and three bronzes. The pupils who participated in the Physics Olympiad are just as good, their value being confirmed by the five medals they got: two golden medals and three silvers.

In the same line, the young Romanians who participated in the IT Olympiad returned home from Australia with four medals, of which two golden medals. 2013 is undoubtedly a very good year for the Romanian pupils and proof of this is also their recent success in Russia. At the Tuymaada Pluridisciplinary Olympiad, they got 13 medals, scoring the best result in recent years:9 golden medals at IT, mathematics, physics and chemistry.

351 less Romanian troops will be deployed in Afghanistan, as a direct consequence of the international forces’ withdrawal from that country, to start in 2014.

A transfer of authority has been made in Afghanistan between the 32nd Infantry Battalion (the Yellow Scorpions), which returns to Romania, and the 151st Infantry Battalion (the Black Wolves), which started a 6 month mission in the Zabul province. This is the third mission carried out by the Black Wolves in Afghanistan. They will be the only manoeuvre battalion to take action as part of the US First Infantry Division, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, (“Duke” Brigade).

Their commander, lieutenant-colonel Sergiu Mungiu, sums up the mission of the Romanian troops: “First of all, we will try, alongside the local authorities to support the locals in an effort to improve their living standards and to help the local population lead a decent life in Afghanistan. We should also contribute to developing the capabilities of the Afghan Police, in order to be able to independently carry out patrol and fighting missions. The main goals we have set for ourselves during this mission are broadly the following: we want to successfully complete the mission we have been assigned and to return home healthy and without casualties. ”

The Romanian military will permanently work together with the Afghan military, just like before, transferring expertise on the functioning of the human resources department, logistics, ways to keep in good conditions and repair the military vehicles and technology used by the Afghan military during their missions in the Zabul province, as well as how to use transmission and communication equipment. However, the timetable set by Romania’s Higher Defence Council provides for the start of withdrawing Romanain Army troops from Afghanistan next year. In the past 11 years, since it started carrying out patrol missions in Afghanistan, as part of the NATO troops, the Romanian Army lost 20 military in the line of duty. Apart from the withdrawal process, there is much talk on the necessity to support the national Afghan army, after the completion of the NATO mission, in late 2014.

A report drawn up by the Pentagon draws attention to the fact that the complete withdrawal option, backed by the White House, puts in jeopardy the progress made by Afghanistan’s national army, underlining that the Afghan army will need counselling and support, financial assistance included, for a long period of time, post 2014. However, keeping some military, including 200 Romanian military troops in Afghanistan, after 2014, is conditioned by the conclusion of intergovernmental agreements. Proof of the fact that terrorism continues to be a threat to mankind is the recent decision by the US, France, Germany and the United Kingdom to temporarily close their embassies in conflict areas in Africa and Asia.

The increase in prices, the possibility of losing their jobs and the decrease in incomes are the Romanians’ biggest worries, along with anxieties caused by the deterioration of their health, the fear of natural disasters and the possibility of a conflict or a war in the region. Although the percentage of the people worried about price-hikes decreased from over 34% to under 30%, it remains, however, relatively high.

The majority of respondents say the price of energy and fuel went up compared to last year, that it is higher than in other European countries and that in winter, half of the average income of most families is spent on energy and heating bills. 28.6% of Romanians were worried in July that they might lose their jobs, 6% more than in February. More people are also worried about the diminution of their incomes, that is 17.5% compared to a previous 16%.

Only 22.2% of respondents are not worried about the future and believe Romania is heading in the right direction. An overwhelming majority of 65.5% believe their country is not on the right track. These figures come as no surprise. Sociologists say the people’s discontent is the result both of a kind of inertia in terms of the perpetuation of negative perceptions accumulated in the recent years of economic crisis, and the delay in the implementation of the measures for economic and social recovery expected by the population.

The latest poll also includes questions about the desired form of government. Asked what they will say in the event of a referendum on Romania’s becoming a monarchy, 41% said they want their country to remain a republic. If Romania becomes a monarchy, a possibility supported by 27.2% of Romanians, almost a third of respondents said the throne should be occupied by the former sovereign Michael I, while 19% are in favour of his daughter, Margaret.

While more than half of all respondents believe the advantage of a republic is that the president is elected periodically and by the people and does not inherit this position, 4 out of 10 Romanians say monarchy has the advantage of not depending on political parties and can thus act as an unbiased mediator in political life. The poll was commissioned by a daily of national coverage between the 12th and the 21st of July 2013. 1,050 people were canvassed in 37 counties and the capital Bucharest. The admissible margin of error is +/- 3%.