8 January, 2018
Social Democratic Party to discuss cabinet reshuffle and party congress./ Cristian Mungius Graduation named best foreign film by the National Society of Film Critics.
Newsroom, 08.01.2018, 13:34
Meeting. A new reshuffling of the cabinet made up of the
Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, one year
after coming to power, and the party congress are on the agenda of today’s
meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party, the
senior partner in the ruling coalition. The Committee will also discuss the
appointment of a new minister for waters following the recent resignation of
Doina Pana for health reasons. The cabinet led by Mihai Tudose currently has 27
ministers, including three deputy prime ministers and two ministers delegate.
Protest. Hundreds of people
staged a protest on Sunday night in the centre of Cluj, in north-western
Romania, calling on the government and Parliament to respect the independence
of the judiciary. Also on Sunday, 19 civic associations published a joint
letter accusing the ruling coalition in Bucharest of trying to undermine the
fight against corruption and the independence of prosecutors and to control
judges. The signatories call on president Klaus Iohannis to mediate what they
describe as a conflict between the state and society.
Film
award. The production Graduation by the Romanian director Cristian
Mungiu was named best foreign film by the National Society of Film Critics, one
of the most prestigious associations of film critics in the Unites States. In
2017, the award went to Toni Erdmann, a production with Romanian
contribution directed by Maren Ade. Established in 1966 in New York, the
National Society of Film Critics comprises 59 members, including journalists for
leading American publications. Graduation is about a doctor in a small
Romanian town who does everything he can to make sure his daughter is accepted
into a British university after she suffers sexual aggression right before the
start of high school graduation exams. The production has received many
international prizes, such as best director award at Cannes Film Festival in
2016.
Tennis. The
Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer won
the first round of the ATP tournament in Sydney, Australia worth around 465,000
dollars in prize money. They defeated the Italian-German pair Paolo Lorenzi and
Mischa Zverev in straight sets. Tecau and Rojer next face either the
all-Colombian pair Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah or the
all-Argentine pair Leonardo Mayer and Diego Schwartzman. In other tennis news,
Romania’s Simona Halep, who is world no. 1, will be seeded first at the
Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year held in Melbourne
between the 15th and the 28th of January. Last week,
Halep won the WTA tournament in Shenzhen, China, where she defeated the
titleholder Katerina
Siniakova of the Czech Republic. In Shenzhen,
Halep also won the doubles title together with another Romanian player, Irina
Begu.
Handball. Two Romanian women’s handball sides on Sunday
lost their first EHF Cup matches. In Group A, SCM Craiova lost to the French
side Brest
Bretagne Handball 25:22, while in Group D, HC Zalau were defeated by the
Norwegian champions Larvik 23:28. The two teams will play the next round at
home. Craiova face the Danish side Randers on the 13th of January,
and Zalau face the Swedish side H65 Hoors on the 14th of January.
