January 21, 2025
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 21.01.2025, 13:55
Elections. The Permanent Electoral Authority in Bucharest said political parties may begin to collect signatures for the candidates they will support in the presidential elections in May. The signatures can be collected only in physical format and a voter can support more than one candidate. The ruling coalition, formed by the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, is yet to kick-start the election period and to officially endorse the former Liberal leader Crin Antonescu as their joint candidate in their respective leadership bodies. The Social Democratic leadership met today and in principle endorsed Crin Antonescu as presidential candidate in May and decided to hold a party congress on 2nd February to give the final vote on his candidature.
Congratulations. Romania’s acting president Klaus Iohannis has congratulated the new White House leader Donald Trump on his investiture. “Romania, a close strategic partner of the US, wishes you the best of success for this important new mandate. We need a strong and vibrant transatlantic link, to the benefit of our joint EU-US security and prosperity”, president Iohannis posted on social media. The leaders of Romania’s biggest parties also congratulated Donald Trump on the inauguration of his second term in office on Monday.
Donald Trump. A few hours after taking office, Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the World Health Organisation and the Paris Agreement on climate. He also signed an executive order on an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development global tax arrangement and asked the Department of Energy to resume processing export applications for liquefied natural gas. He declared an energy emergency in the US and revoked a number of orders introduced by the Biden administration, including one on the risks of artificial intelligence. Trump also lifted the sanctions imposed by Biden on the Jewish settlers who committed violence against the Palestinians in the West Bank. He told the Justice Department to dismiss the cases connected to the attack on Capitol and pardoned 1,500 of his supporters who took the building by storm in 2021 and reduced and commuted the sentences of others. Trump declared the illegal immigration on the border with Mexico as a national emergency and the drug cartels as terrorist organisations and signed a document affecting the granting of birthright citizenship. Donald Trump also suspended refugee programmes for four months, which led to the cancellation of flights to the US for over 1,600 Afghans, including relatives of US soldiers.
Airports. Passenger traffic on Romania’s airports grew in 2024 by almost 6%, following the lifting of air borders with Schengen at the end of March last year. According to the Airport Association, more than 26 million passengers transited Romanian airports last year, compared with 23.2 million in 2023. Out of the total number of passengers who transited Romanian airports after Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, 70% travelled within Schengen, and 30% travelled from or to non-Schengen destinations, the association also wrote.
Festival. The 27th edition of the George Enescu International Festival will place special emphasis on cultural events and concerts all across Romania and for all Romanians to enjoy, the festival’s artistic director, the Romanian conductor Cristian Măcelaru, told a press conference held on Monday in Bucharest. He said this year’s edition will see a number of special events, including the commemoration of 70 years since the death of George Enescu. The festival will take place between 24th August and 21st September and will feature 80 symphonic, chamber, choir and instrumental ensemble performances from 28 different countries.
Tennis. The Romanian-Ukrainian doubles pair Gabriela Ruse and Marta Kostiuk lost to the Taiwanese-Latvian pair Su-Wei Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko in three sets in the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the Australian Open. Ruse and Kostiuk together played two Grand Slam semifinals in women’s doubles, one in Melbourne in 2023 and the second at Roland Garros in 2024.
