April 17, 2017
Christians celebrate 2nd day of Easter/ President Iohannis visits Spain/ Erdogan wins referendum by a narrow margin
Newsroom, 17.04.2017, 14:02
2nd Day of Easter — Christians from all over the world, including from Romania, a majority Orthodox country, have entered Easter Week, when celebrations devoted to Christ’s Resurrection continue. The celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, the most important of Christianity, has been devoted three days. On Monday, the second day of Easter, priests officiate the same service as on the Resurrection night. Their vestments are white. This week everything is under the sign of Light, a symbol of Christ’s Resurrection. During Easter Week, Christians greet each other saying Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
Madrid visit — The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Monday started a private visit to Spain, which will last until Saturday, the presidential administration has announced. On Easter night the president was in Sibiu (in central Romania) together with his wife to attend the religious service at the “Holy Trinity” Roman-Catholic Church. In the message President Klaus Iohannis conveyed on Easter he made warm wishes to all Romanians in the country and abroad and said the spirit of this holy celebration should give us confidence to look at the future with optimism.
Referendum — The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won a referendum by a narrow margin, which grants him sweeping new powers. While the main opposition party questions the legitimacy of the referendum, saying that the vote was marked by illegalities, the Turkish president told his supporters that he would promulgate the constitutional amendments that could allow him to stay in power for another 12 years. His plans after the victory focus on concentrating power in the hands of the president, who will be able to keep his political affiliation, on abolishing the position of prime minister, on electing the high-ranking magistrates and dissolving Parliament. European leaders were reticent at the results of the referendum held in Turkey. According to news agencies, the EU and the Council of Europe highlighted that the result of the referendum was tight, a fact which, alongside the implications of the constitutional changes that will be made, should be a reason for Ankara to look for international consensus for their implementation. Both organizations said that Turkey should observe the European standards in the fields of legislation and human rights. However, President Erdogan said he would not do that, and that he intended to introduce the death penalty- a move that could put an end to any cooperation with the EU member states.
Beijing — China has announced that its economy has grown in the first quarter of 2017 by 6.9%, which points to a higher growth rate than in the previous forecasts. The data show that the world’s second largest economy is getting stabilized, after the Chinese authorities had recently announced the slowest pace of growth of the past 26 years. (translation by L. Simion)
