August 30 – September 3

A roundup of the week's top stories

Eugen Coroianu, 04.09.2021, 14:00

Gloves-off
politics – crisis in the ruling coalition

After a number
of harsh verbal exchanges and several setbacks in the functioning of the local
administration, the center-right ruling coalition on Wednesday reached a
deadlock after the unexpected demise by Liberal Prime Minister Florin Cîţu of the USR-PLUS Justice
Minister, Stelian Ion. The head of government says his decision was based on
Ion’s refusal to greenlight the Anghel Saligny infrastructure project, where
Ion claims to have identified several constitutional and illegal issues. In
response, the USR-PLUS alliance announced it withdraws its political
support for Florin Cîţu and filed a no-confidence vote agaisnt him jointly with AUR. On
Thursday, the leadership of the National Liberal Party adopted a resultion
reasserting its support for its own Prime Minister. UDMR, the third-largest
ruling coalition partner, supports the need to implement the said projecta and said the coalition must move foward.
Political pundits and some politicians say the current crisis may have other,
more problematic reasons, such as issues pertaining to the reform of the
judiciary and the leadership of key judicial institutions. From the opposition,
PSD and AUR say the
Cîţu Cabinet must be removed. President Klaus Iohannis signed the decrees
dismissing Stelian Ion and appointing Interior Minister Lucian Bode as interim
Justice Minister.

The politics
of autumn – a new Parliament session

The first day
of autumn also marked the beginning of a new Parliament session. According to
MPs, the number one priority of the ruling coalition, announced before the
crisis, is the adoption of the so-called law on vulnerable consumers. Already
adopted by the Senate, the bill stipulates state aid to low-income families,
helping them pay one energy bill. At Senate level, coalition leaders are
expected to come up with a new solution to disband the Special Section
investigating Crime in Justice, another bone of contention in the ruling
coalition. PSD wants to swiftly debate and adopt the bill titled No criminals
in public office, a topic which for years had been championed by the
right-wing. President Klaus Iohannis said a number of reforms are still needed,
and that Parliament still has unsolved business to attend to, calling on MPs
to show Romanians some respect through their actions. The president also said
people’s confidence in Parliament is not at its highest right now, representing
an acute issue, which has heightened over the years against the backdrop of
the huge gap between promises made by politicians during election campaigns and
the results reported at the end of their term in office. For this very reason,
returning to citizen-oriented policies should be the new line of action for
Parliament’s next session, the president added. Klaus Iohannis also said the
new session starts at a very difficult time, both nationally and
internationally, with the world still struggling to deal with the fallouts of
COVID-19.

Politics and
the pandemic – resurge in the number of COVID infections

The
epidemiological context has again taken a turn for the worse, every day more
and more cases of the new Delta strain of COVID-19 being reported across
Romania. The country has seen an increase in the number of infections, patients
being treated in hospitals as well as fatalities, at the end of a summer
without restrictions. Romania is now under the fourth wave of the pandemic, and
it seems to be paying the price of vaccination hesitancy. Romania and
neighboring Bulgaria are the EU countries with the lowest vaccination rates
right now. In a last effort to boost vaccination, the Government this week
announced 100-lei meal vouchers will be given to people who complete the
vaccination scheme, as well as the organization of a lottery. The health system
is again reporting difficulties in certain areas of the country, and experts
expect things to further worsen.

Politics and
education – a new school year starts on September 13

A new school
year is set to start on September 13, a situation that last year resulted in a
resurge of the number of COVID infections across the country. This time, the
politicians decided to ease restrictions – in towns and villages where the
incidence rate is below 6 per thousand inhabitants, classes will be held with
full physical attendance for nursery schools and elementary schools. That, of
course, with the full observance of health safety measures. Where the incidence
rate exceeds 6 per thousand, nursery schools will remain open to physical
attendance in class until quarantine is introduced, where necessary, the Prime
Minister announced.

No politics – the
George Enescu International Music Festival

A new edition
of the George Enescu International Music Festival kicked off this week in
Romania, marking 140 years since the birth of the great Romanian composer. The
festival’s artistic director, Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski, says the
most prestigious artists have come to Bucharest this year. 3,500 Romanian and
foreign musicians, 32 orchestras from 14 countries are taking part. The 25th
edition of the festival brings us one step closer to society as we k new it, a
society of crowded concert halls, which makes us regain trust that together we
can celebrate quality, Minister of Culture Bogdan Gheorghiu has said. (VP)