December 20, 2020 UPDATE

A news update

Newsroom, 20.12.2020, 19:25

Meeting — The two chambers of Romania’s new Parliament elected on December 6 were summoned by President Klaus Iohannis to meet on Monday in separate sessions in the opening of the 2020-2024 legislature. The two chambers are declared legally set up after the validation of two thirds of the MP mandates and after their being sworn in. 466 MPs were elected following the December 6 legislative elections, 330 deputies and 136 senators. In parallel, the representatives of the future majority center-right coalition in Parliament continued negotiations regarding the common governing program. PNL, USR-PLUS and UDMR also reached an agreement over the distribution of the key positions in the state. The presidency of the Chamber of Deputies will be held by a Liberal and that of the Senate by a representative of the USR-PLUS alliance. The proposal for the PM post will be the current Liberal finance minister Florin Citu. In the future cabinet, PNL will hold 9 portfolios, USR-PLUS 6 and UDMR 3. There will also be 2 deputy prime ministers from USR-PLUS and UDMR. On the other hand, PSD, ranked first after the legislative elections, insists that the correct solution, in the context of the pandemic, would be a national union government, headed by Professor Alexandru Rafila, Romania’s representative at the WHO. The Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu said that his party would never vote for a government made up of PNL- USR-PLUS and UDMR, which keeps Romania in a crisis, according to him.

Covid-19 Ro — 3,350 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the past 24 hours in Romania, after a little over 12,200 tests were performed. The total number of cases exceeded 591,000, according to data provided on Sunday by the Strategic Communication Group. At the same time, another 98 Romanians have died from Covid-19, the total death toll reaching almost 14,400. 1,267 patients are in ICUs. In another development, preparations are being made in Romania before the arrival of the first COVID 19 vaccines. The Cantacuzino National Institute for Medical-Military Research and Development in Bucharest is expected to be approved as a national vaccine storage center. The Institute has already completed all stages of arranging the storage spaces, including the installation of the storage freezers providing a temperature of -80 degrees Celsius. The unit will have a storage capacity of approximately 1.5 million doses, while around 200,000 doses will be stored in each of the six regional centers. During this period, the training of the personnel who will perform the vaccination will also take place. The first 10,000 doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccine are expected in Romania on December 26. They are intended for the medical staff from 10 infectious diseases hospitals across Romania.

Commemorations — Manifestations continue in Romania, in the context of the pandemic, to honor the memory of the heroes who died 31 years ago in the anti-Communist revolution. Started on December 16 in Timisoara (western Romania) the revolution extended on December 21 to Bucharest and other cities of Romania, culminating on the next day with the dictators fleeing in a helicopter from the headquarters of the Communist Party central committee that was being besieged by thousands of protesters. Arrested, the dictators were superficially tried and shot dead on December 25 in a military barracks in Targoviste (south). Romania was the only country in central and southeastern Europe where the toppling of the Communist regime turned into a bloodshed. More than 1,100 people died and over 3,000 were seriously wounded while several hundreds were illegally arrested and tortured.

Gymnastics – Romanian gymnast Larisa Iordache on Sunday won gold in the floor event at the European Women’s’ Artistic Gymnastics Championships hosted by Mersin, Turkey. Previously she had obtained gold in the beam event and silver in the vault event. The silver medal won by Silviana Sfiringu in the beam event and the silver medal Romania obtained in the team competition bring to 5 the total number of medals the Romanian senior gymnasts won in Turkey. To all these also add the medals won Romania’s junior gymnasts — 6 gold medals in all events (team, all-around, apparatus), two silver medals in the all-around and floor events and one bronze in the beam event.

Handball — CSM Bucharest easily obtained qualification to the eighth finals of the men’s handball competition of the EHF European Cup on Sunday, after defeating, on home ground, the Turkish team Spor Toto SC 38-28 in the second leg of the 3rd round. CSMB had also won the first match hosted by Ankara 33-27. One week ago, Minaur Baia Mare (north) had qualified to the eighth finals of the same competition after a double victory against the Cypriot team Parnassos Strovolou, 28-25 and 29-24 respectively. (tr. L. Simion)