Category: Today in the News

Political migration from one party to another, stimulated by the upcoming local elections, keeps changing the balance of power in the Romanian Parliament. The most affected is the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has been deserted by dozens of members. Supported by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania and the National Union for the Progress of Romania, Liberal-Democrats are now looking for solutions to stop these desertions. PM Mihaela Popa, whose joining the Liberal Party deprived the power of majority in the Senate, explains her decision:





Mihaela Popa: “Success in politics can only be achieved by building democracy within a party. I’ve said it and you, the media, stressed it: a party cannot build democracy in Romania without democracy within the party.”





The current power is in full process of dissolution, believes liberal senator Puiu Hasotii, who knows of MPs who are ready to join the opposition. The opposition getting stronger could cause the Ungureanu government lots of headaches, as the government is about to face the first no-confidence motion since taking office. The former Prime Minister, Emil Boc, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, is skeptical about the opposition’s chances of success.





Emil Boc: “The coalition is stable and has the majority it needs to dismiss the no-confidence motion. The Ungureanu government will stay in office, despite the censure motion filed by the Social Liberal Union. We will start the election campaign with those who really believe in the right values and are not opportunist. It’s time we cleansed the Liberal Democratic Party from opportunists.”





Those who decided to leave the party say their decision has nothing to do with opportunism. The former vice-president and one of the founders of the Liberal Democratic Party, Sorin Frunzaverde, who hit the party hard by joining the Liberals a month ago, says he is trying to build within the Liberal Party, a strong right wing movement, as the Justice and Truth Alliance once was.





Part of that alliance, the democrats and the liberals would run together in the election eight years ago, to win both local, legislative and presidential elections. Three years later, in April 2007, the alliance broke up. This year’s local elections, to be held on June 10th, as well as the legislative ones, due in autumn, will see the former partners running from opposite positions, separated by irreconcilable differences.

Romanian wrestlers, either competing in the Greco-Roman contests or in the freestyle events, are no longer among the world’s elite nowadays. The situation was entirely different two decades ago, when wrestlers from Romania, particularly in Greco-Roman style, used to walk away with several gold medals from the world’s most prestigious competitions.





Between 1961 and 1985, wrestlers from Romania netted 14 world titles. Athletes like Gheorghe Berceanu, Nicu Ginga or Stefan Rusu saw their names even twice in the ranking of the world’s best wrestlers. For three years Romania shinned in Europe, with wrestlers coming first in almost all nations standings, in Bursa – 1977, in Oslo — 1978 and Bucharest — 1979.





Today we’ll introduce to you the first Romanian wrestler to walk away with gold from an Olympic competition. His name is Dumitru Parvulescu and he stepped unto the first step of the podium in Rome Olympics in 1960.





Parvulescu was born in Bucharest on June 14th 1933 and took up wrestling concurrently with boxing at Stiinta Bucharest, with coach Petrica Ioanitescu. Parvulescu later joined Steagu Rosu, based in Brasov, central Romania, and Steaua Bucharest. His first notable performance came at the Olympics in Melbourne, back in 1956, when he ranked fourth in the 52-kilogram category contest, missing bronze by a small margin. Four years later, in Rome, he was back with a vengeance; arguably there was no match for Parvulescu in the 52-kilogram category.





He successfully defended his place among in the world’s wrestling elite, with a silver medal in a world championship, before the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he also stepped up on the third step of the podium.





After withdrawing from competitions, as a trainer he entirely dedicated himself to the younger generations of wrestlers. Among those who benefited from his expertise and inspired guidance at Progresul Sports Club in Bucharest, there was Vasile Andrei, Romania’s Olympic champion in Los Angeles in 1984.





The year 2007 is a sad date in the memory of wrestling lovers in Romania, as it was the end of a legend – Dumitru Parvulescu.

The history of Romania’s National Library starts in 1859, when the library of the Saint Sava High School was raised to the status of National Library. In 1910, its collections were transferred to the Romanian Academy. It took two years to find a location — the former Stock Exchange Palace — and another one to make the necessary adjustments before the library reopened in 1955. Talks regarding moving the library to a more suitable location date back to the early 1960s. However, building works started only in 1986 before being called off within weeks of completion in 1989.

The original project was again revised in 2004, and two years later the Ministry of Culture decided to transform the building so as to accommodate both a National Library and a cultural centre. Renovation works kicked off in the spring of 2009 and finished at the end of last year, amounting to over 100 million euros worth of investment. The official ceremony marking the opening of the new headquarters was held on December 15th 2011, although the Library opened its gates to the wider public on Monday. The Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Kelemen Hunor enlarges:

“I believe Romania and the people of Bucharest deserve such an institution. I am happy and proud to be finally able to take pride in a library. It was a huge investment and a huge effort, but it was worth it”.

The library has 14 large reading rooms, 6 conference rooms and a 400-seat lecture room. It boasts 30,000 square meters of storage area and 15,000 square meters of multipurpose areas for exhibitions, a toy library, book shops and coffee bars. People looking for the right atmosphere conducive to studying, including students and groups of students working on joint projects, can find a quiet environment in specially designed rooms. Study rooms, conference halls and the spectacular all-purpose lecture room are fitted with noise-absorbing panels.

Readers can look up books in the database comprising over 12 million titles and can get the books they’ve asked for by means of a small smart elevator installed in each reading room. The most interesting room in the new headquarters is the customized all-purpose cinema-shaped lecture room that oozes style. The lecture room boasts an impressive lighting and spotlight system. It is fully equipped to screen films and is completely soundproof. The most valuable volume to date in the archive of the library is Codex Aureus, an 9th-century illuminated gospel manuscript that can also be browsed online. The National Library building is the most important cultural investment in Romania in the last 20 years.

A joint mission of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the World Bank is currently in Bucharest to make a new assessment, the fifth, of the agreement concluded with Romania in the spring of 2011. That is the last visit to Bucharest by the incumbent chief of the IMF delegation to Romania, Jeffrey Franks, who will hand over the position to Dutch Erik De Vrijer, who is also accompanying the current mission in Bucharest.

The IMF has made available to Romania some 2 billion Euros so far, after the Managing Board disbursed another payment, worth 505 million Euros following the assessment mission in early February. The current agreement between Bucharest and the IMF is a precautionary one and is worth 3.6 billion Euros. It accounts for about 300% of the quota Romania has at the IMF. The precautionary accord is accompanied by a similar agreement, worth 1.4 billion Euros signed with the European Commission and a credit line granted by the World Bank, worth 400 million Euros.

Some of the commitments made by the Romanian authorities, whose compliance has been only partially observed or even postponed, are related to privatizations, the promotion of managers from the private sector to state-owned companies and the budget deficit. Another interesting issue on the agenda of the talks refers to the authorities’ intention to bring salaries of public sector employees back to the level prior to July 2010 when they were slashed by 25%, as an austerity measure. The current context is a difficult one because of the elections to be held this year, coupled with worsening economic prospects.

It remains to be seen to what extent the Romanian authorities will manage to prove to the IMF officials that such a measure is sustainable. The IMF experts estimate that this year Romania will register an economic growth rate of 1.5% of the GDP, below initial estimates, because of the anticipated recession in the Euro zone and the downturn on international markets. Another focal point on the agenda of the economic and financial mission is the commitment made by the Romanian government to increase by 5% electricity prices by late June, for both industrial and private consumers. As regards the price of natural gas, the talks are focused on a phased out timetable, spanning several years, until the prices are liberalized.

Under the agreement signed with the IMF, Romania should restructure the sector of state-owned companies and to carry out a comprehensive reform of the healthcare system. Early this month, Economy Minister, Lucian Bode, said the government wanted to discuss again with the IMF the list of state-owned companies which will be privatized or traded on the stock exchange. The list includes Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea, Cupru Min Abrud, Transgaz, Romgaz, Nuclearelectrica and Hidroelectrica.