December 17, 2016 UPDATE
The new parliament will convene on December 20, President Iohannis has announced
Newsroom, 17.12.2016, 00:11
COMMEMORATION – In the western Romanian city of Timişoara, ceremonies have begun, which commemorate 27 years since the start of the Revolution of December 1989, which brought down the communist regime. A day of mourning was observed on Saturday in the city, in memory of the around 100 heroes who died in Timisoara. Sparked by the locals opposition to an abusive measure of the city hall, the protests quickly spread across the country, culminating on December 22 with dictator Nicolae Ceausescus attempted escape. More than 1,000 people died and another 3,400 were wounded between December 16 and 25, 1989. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country where the communist regime was overthrown in a violent manner and the communist leaders were executed.
PARLIAMENT – The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, has announced that he will convene the new Parliament on December 20, and on December 21 and 22 he will have talks with the representatives of political parties. This week the head of state has had a first round of consultations with the political parties that will be part of the new parliament further to last Sundays elections. He discussed with the representatives of the National Liberal Party, Save Romania Union, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Peoples Movement Party and the group of ethnic minorities. The Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania, who will make up the new parliamentary majority, declined the invitation, on grounds of procedural flaws, but said they would talk with the President after the new Parliament was validated.
LEGISLATION – The bill drafted by the Social Democratic Party on the scrapping of 102 charges and fees, including the radio and television license fee, will be sent back to Parliament for review. President Klaus Iohannis made this decision on the same day that the Constitutional Court announced the bill did not come against the Constitution. The Presidents move triggered the discontent of the Social Democratic leader, Liviu Dragnea, the initiator of the bill. Dragnea vowed not to give up the elimination of the respective charges, and said the bill would once again be pushed through Parliament.
US-RUSSIA – US President Barack Obama said his country would respond to the cyber-attacks launched by Russia during the presidential election campaign in November. The American authorities say they have evidence that hackers linked to Kremlin broke into the email accounts of members of the Democratic candidate Hillary Clintons team, to help the campaign of Republican candidate Donald Trump. Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin, President Obama told a press conference, virtually confirming the view that Russian President Putin was personally involved in the attempts to hack into the computers of the National Democratic Committee. Russia denied the accusations.
(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)
