November 26, 2024 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 26.11.2024, 20:00

ELECTIONS – The Central Election Bureau presented the final results of the first round of the presidential elections in Romania on Tuesday. According to the data, independent candidate Călin Georgescu ranks first in the voters’ preferences with 22.94% of the votes. In second place is the leader of the Save Romania Union (USR), Elena Lasconi, with 19.18%, and in third place, the president of the Social Democratic Party, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, with 19.15 percent. Next is the president of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, George Simion, with 13.86% of the votes, that of the National Liberal Party, Nicolae Ciuca – 8.79% and the former deputy secretary general of NATO, Mircea Geoană, who ran independently and was preferred by 6.32% of the voters. All other candidates got under 5% each. After the results of Sunday’s election, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu resigned from his position as president of the Social Democrats. The PNL leadership also resigned.

DIPLOMACY – Romania is ‘firmly’ committed to supporting democratic values ​​of human rights, including gender equality, combating anti-Semitism, xenophobia and any form of discrimination, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday. “Romania’s foreign policy initiatives are inseparable from the country’s membership in the area of ​​freedoms and rights guaranteed by its status as a member state of the European Union and a NATO ally’, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release regarding the ‘external concerns’ that emerged after the first round of the presidential elections. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized the fact that, “35 years since Romania returned to the family of Western democracies, through the courage of those who died in the Romanian Revolution, these values ​​are the ones that guarantee peace, security and prosperity for all Romanian citizens, wherever they may be”. In this context, the National Audiovisual Council asked the European Commission to open an official investigation into the TikTok platform. The CNA took as a benchmark the report made by Expert Forum, which established that the electoral preferences for the candidate Călin Georgescu increased from 2 to 22% based on a campaign conducted on the Chinese network. The RENEW group in the European Parliament also asked the social network to provide explanations regarding compliance with the legislation on digital services. We recall that, a year ago, the European Commission asked staff to remove TikTok from their work devices.

EUROPEAN UNION – MEPs reaffirmed their strong support for Ukraine in Strasbourg on Tuesday, condemning cooperation between Russia and North Korea and calling on the European Union to step up its support for Kyiv’s forces. A recent statement by the leaders of the European Parliament calls on the bloc to “step up support for Ukraine in all ways, including politically, financially, militarily and through humanitarian aid”. It also reiterated that the EP “stands by and supports Ukraine in every way possible until its victory”. Also on Tuesday, the European Union’s budget for next year was increased to almost 200 billion euros following negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council. The budget proposal was debated in the European Parliament and will be voted on Wednesday, when the final vote on the new European Commission is also scheduled.

G7 – The Foreign Ministers of the G7 states on Tuesday voiced their support for ‘an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah’, saying that ‘it is time to reach a diplomatic solution in Lebanon’, France Presse reports. On the other hand, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that Israel ‘has no excuse’ for refusing the ceasefire in Lebanon, negotiated by the US and France. At a time when diplomatic efforts are intensifying, Israel has increased its bombing of Hezbollah strongholds, especially on the southern outskirts of Beirut. In this context, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, expressed concern about the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon, where according to his office almost 100 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in recent days, including women, children and doctors. We recall that on October 8, 2023, the Lebanese group Hezbollah opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas, its Palestinian ally.

MOLDOVA – Justice, economy and security are the main priorities for the Republic of Moldova in the coming years, President Maia Sandu said on Tuesday, at the European Integration Forum in Chisinau. She emphasized that accession to the EU is the only chance to save democracy, to develop in peace and stability. Despite the anti-EU propaganda and the Kremlin’s attempts to turn us away, Moldovan citizens have shown that European values ​​are also their values, said Maia Sandu, recalling the constitutional referendum following which the Constitution was amended and the European path was included as a strategic objective. We recall that the neighboring state officially submitted its application for EU accession in March 2022, just a few days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In June the same year, the European Council granted Moldova the candidate country status.