April 18, 2025 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 18.04.2025, 20:00
EASTER The Holy Easter Light will be brought to Romania from Jerusalem, on Saturday evening, and will be offered to the church delegates present at the Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport. Subsequently, diocesan centers will distribute the Holy Light to each parish, the press office of the Romanian Patriarchate announced. This year too, the Holy Light will be taken from Bucharest to Chisinau, in the Republic of Moldova. “Bringing and offering the Holy Light from Jerusalem to all parishes within the Romanian Patriarchate therefore constitutes both a testimony of ecclesial unity and a demonstration of the Easter joy shared on the occasion of the great feast of the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ,” the Church emphasises. Inaugurated by Patriarch Daniel in 2009, the tradition of bringing the Holy Light from Jerusalem on Holy Saturday continues in the Centennial Year of the Romanian Patriarchate.
EASTER BREAK Around 24,600 employees of the Romanian interior ministry will be mobilised every day to streamline traffic, ensure rapid response in emergency situations, prevent and combat illegal actions and save lives during the Easter break. “Interior ministry personnel will be monitoring 14,150 places of worship where religious services will be held, attended by approximately 2,332,000 people”, the interior ministry spokesperson Monica Dajbog said. In order to prevent fires and other emergencies, fire-fighters have recently inspected churches, accommodation units and other sites that are crowded during the holidays. In April alone, over 1,500 such inspections were carried out to check compliance with fire prevention measures, and fines totalled approximately €1 million. Over 1,600 traffic police officers will be on duty on busy roads. Patrol units will operate with approximately 400 radar devices and devices that detect alcohol or prohibited substance users who threaten road safety.
ELECTIONS The campaign for the presidential elections continues in Romania until May 3, on the eve of the first round of voting. There are 11 confirmed candidacies submitted to the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC). Four candidates run independently and 7 others are supported by parties or alliances. Under the Constitution, the president of Romania is elected by universal, equal, direct, secret and freely expressed vote. The candidate who gets a majority of the votes cast by the voters registered on electoral lists in the first round of voting, is declared elected. If none of the candidates has obtained a majority, a second round of voting is held on May 18, between the top two candidates by the number of votes carried in the first round.
EXERCISE Over May 5-23, approximately 4,000 military personnel and 913 military equipment and systems from 10 NATO states (Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal and Romania) will take part in the DACIAN SPRING 2025 (DASP 25) multinational exercise organised in Romania. The exercise is planned and led by the Multinational Division South-East Command (HQ MND-SE) and will take place simultaneously in several training centres. Dacian Spring 25 is attended by all structures of the Romanian Army – land, air, naval, and cyber forces, along with personnel from the Multinational Brigade South-East Command and Allied troops. The main goal is to test collective defence operations and strengthen the integration of participating forces into the command and control structures of the Multinational Division South-East Command. For the first time, a Belgian manoeuvre battalion will be deployed in Romania.
LAWSUIT A Romanian woman living in the US recently won an important stage in a libel lawsuit filed against the giant Tesla, owned by the billionaire Elon Musk. The US Court of Appeals has accepted the reopening of the case, after the file had been dismissed by a lower court on procedural grounds, Western media write. In 2014, Cristina Bălan was an important member of the Tesla team and reported a safety problem with the EV braking system. The company chose not to address the woman’s concerns and fired her instead. Since then, she has been fighting Tesla and Musk in court.
ORGANISED CRIME Officers with the Romanian police structures fighting organised crime carried out over 400 operational actions in the first three months of the year, as a result of which 23 criminal groups, consisting of 173 people, were dismantled. According to a news release issued by the Romanian Police on Friday, 582 detention orders and 496 pre-trial arrest warrants were issued as part of criminal investigations coordinated by the anti-mafia prosecutor’s office. Also, 23 people were placed under house arrest and 150 under court supervision. In the first three months of the year, 1,311 home searches were conducted, and 1,505 people were investigated. (AMP)
