December 13, 2016

President Iohannis will hold consultations with political parties that will form the new parliament.

Newsroom, 13.12.2016, 00:00

ELECTIONS – Romanias Social Democratic Party (PSD) won Sundays parliamentary elections by a wide margin, with over 45.5%, after the counting of 99.82% of the votes, according to the Central Electoral Bureau. Coming second in voters preferences is the National Liberal Party (PNL) with little over 20%. Following are smaller parties that have exceeded the 5-percent electoral threshold and will be part of the parliament for the first time, such as Save Romania Union (USR), set up after the local elections this summer, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), built around a number of Liberal dissidents led by former prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, and the Peoples Movement Party (PMP) headed by former president Traian Basescu. A constant presence in Parliament, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) got over 6 percent of the votes.

PNL– The leaders of the National Liberal Party (PNL) are meeting today to decide on the partys interim leadership, following the resignation of its former president, Alina Gorghiu over the poor results in Sundays parliamentary elections. Gorghiu has announced that the new Liberal leaders will come from the only three counties where the National Liberal Party outrun the Social Democrats, namely Sibiu, Alba and Cluj.

CONSULTATIONS – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday will start consultations with the political parties that will form the parliament following the results of Sundays parliamentary elections. In a news conference on Tuesday morning Iohannis has said that he will discuss with party leaders about how they see the future, with a view to forming the Government. Iohannis has also said that the new Parliament might be convened next week. Iohannis has pointed out that the integrity criteria he mentioned before the elections are valid as far as the new prime minister is concerned. Ahead of the elections, Iohannis warned that he would not nominate a prime minister who had problems with the law.

ITALY – Italys new prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, on Monday evening announced his cabinet members. Gentilonis government also includes members of the former cabinet, such as finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan. Gentiloni, who was a foreign minister in the government headed by Matteo Renzi, has announced that the new head of the Italian diplomacy will be Angelino Alfano, the current interior minister and a former collaborator of Silvio Berlusconi.

MOLDOVA – Moldovas Constitutional Court is to validate today the result of the presidential elections of November 13, won by the pro-Russian Igor Dodon, after all complaints regarding the way in which elections unfolded have been solved. Citizens outside the countrys borders who were unable to vote due to the insufficient number of ballot papers have contested Igor Dodon. Radio Chisinau has reported that the Court has rejected all election fraud complaints.

HANDBALL – Romanias national womens handball team is today playing against the Czech Republic in the group 2 of the main round of the European Championship in Sweden. In the other two games of the group, Hungary is up against Norway and Denmark is playing against Russia. In case of victory, Norway becomes the first semi-finalist of the European Championship. We remind you that on Sunday Romania beat Hungary 29-21. The group is led by Norway with 6 points, followed by Romania and Denmark with 4 points each.

(Translated by Elena Enache)