December 19, 2023

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 19.12.2023, 13:58

COMMEMORATION – In Timișoara (western Romania), events marking the 34th anniversary of the anti-communist revolution of December 1989 continue. Today, the 43 victims killed by the repression forces are commemorated. The victims’ bodies were taken from Timisoara to Bucharest, cremated, and the ashes thrown into a canal, in an attempt to hide the atrocities. A pilgrimage is held today in their memory. Historians say that operation Trandafirul (the Rose), as it was called by the political police of the communist regime, was of extreme cruelty. Having broken out in Timisoara, the people’s revolt against the regime led by dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu spread to several cities in the country. In the violence that followed, over 1,000 people lost their lives and around 3,000 were injured.

BUDGET – The budget-finance committees of the Bucharest Parliament have resumed, today, the debates on the draft budget for next year. The Liberals’ proposal, who are part of the ruling coalition alongside the Social Democrats, that the law clearly stipulates that no new taxes and duties will be applied in 2024 was passed unanimously. The opposition submitted over 4,000 amendments, but so far only a few proposals for reallocation of funds have been accepted. Debates in the plenary will be held later today. The Minister of Finance, Marcel Boloş, said that next years draft budget bill provides for amounts needed to raise pensions and salaries of the teaching staff, to continue investment programs and modernize sectors like healthcare and education. The opposition says, instead, that the project presented in Parliament is based on false figures and unrealistic forecasts. It is expected that the final vote on the state budget and the social insurance budget will be given on Wednesday.

MIGRANTS – More than 200,000 foreigners live in Romania, the General Inspectorate for Immigration reported on Monday, on the occasion of the International Migrants Day. Almost 70% of them come from outside the European Union and the European Economic Area. Since the beginning of the year, almost 1,500 asylum seekers have taken part in an integration programme. On 4 December 2000, the UN General Assembly, taking into account the large and increasing number of migrants in the world, proclaimed 18 December International Migrants Day.

INVESTIGATION – A police investigation is underway in Odorheiul Secuiesc (central Romania), after a student died and three others, aged 15 to 17, is in a serious condition. The four were trapped under the rubble after a wall of the local high school’s boarding school collapsed. The building built over 100 years ago, is the property of the Roman Catholic Church and housed almost 100 students. Some of them self-evacuated when the wall collapsed. The local authorities do not rule out that the incident was caused by works on the sewage network.

MOLDOVA – The Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Dorin Recean, said that his country, which is mostly Romanian-speaking, needs a modern air defense system to counter threats from Russia, amplified by Moscows invasion of Ukraine, its eastern neighbor, Reuters reports. Recean made the statement three days after the Chisinau Parliament approved a new security strategy that identifies Moscow as the biggest threat to the security of the country and to the pro-European Moldovan government. The European Union agreed, last week, to start talks on the accession of both Moldova and Ukraine. But, unlike Ukraine, Moldova has a neutral status written in its Constitution and does not seek to join NATO. Chisinau, Prime Minister Recean said, plans instead, with EU and NATO support, to purchase a modern anti-aircraft defense system. Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Europe, has at present a rudimentary anti-aircraft system, from the Soviet period.

GAZA — The UN Security Council postponed voting on a draft resolution that calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, so that humanitarian aid can reach the Gaza Strip. The resolution’s initiators want more time to try to convince the United States not to veto the resolution. The toll in Gaza exceeded 19,000 dead and 52,000 wounded, with 85% of the Strips population displaced. Israels military operation, launched after the October 7 terrorist attack, which resulted in the death of 1,200 people, aims to eliminate Hamas t and free the hostages still in the hands of the Islamists. (EE)