December 21, 2019
A roundup up domestic news
Newsroom, 21.12.2019, 14:40
Mandate – President Klaus Ioahnnis will be sworn in today for a second term in office as head of state, before the Parliament’s two Chambers. On November 24, in the second round of the presidential election Iohannis, supported by the National Liberal Party, obtained more than 66% of the votes, twice as much as his challenger, the former Social Democratic PM Viorica Dancila. On Thursday, upon the presentation of the activity report of his first mandate as head of state, Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis said that his mandate was marked by major challenges of which the most serious was Romania’s risking to swerve off its western path under the Social Democratic governments. He reiterated that in the past 3 years some groups tried to get their hands on Romania and weaken it by attacking the justice system and he, as president of the country, used all constitutional instruments to counteract these undemocratic forces that tried to stop the anti-corruption fight. In relation to foreign policy, Klaus Iohannis said his actions focused on boosting Romania’s role within the EU and NATO, and expanding and strengthening the strategic partnership with the US.
December 1989 — In Bucharest and Cluj (northwest) continue Saturday the military and religious ceremonies as well as the civic manifestations devoted to the December 1989 anti-Communist revolution. Started in Timisoara on December 16, the revolution extended on December 21 to other big cities of Romania, culminating on December 22 with the escape of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu from the headquarters of the Communist Party in a helicopter. The Ceauseascus were captured and tried hastily then shot dead on December 25 in a barracks in Targoviste (south). Romania was the only country in central and eastern Europe where the toppling of the regime turned into bloodshed. On Thursday the EP adopted a Resolution on the commemoration of 30 years since the December 1989 anti-communist revolution, which pays homage to the heroes that died for freedom and democracy. The document mentions that, in the Romanian Revolution, 1,142 people lost their lives, over 3,000 were seriously wounded and several hundreds were illegally arrested and tortured. Through this resolution the EP admits that the sacrifice of the then peaceful protesters opened the path for Romania’s transition to democracy. The EP also called on the Romanian state to intensify efforts to find the truth about the 1989 revolution and on the EU institutions and members to do their best to make sure that the crimes made by the Communist regimes will not be forgotten, and to thus guarantee that such crimes will never be committed again.
Gendarmerie — The Romanian Gendarmerie has a new leadership: the commander of Ilfov, near Bucharest, Bogdan Enescu and the head of the Romanian gendarmes in Afghanistan Ionuţ Daniel Câmpanu — the interior minister Marcel Vela announced on Saturday. He pointed out that, upon the request of the American partners, the Romanian officer Gabriel Oanţă was designated for the position of deputy director of the Department in charge of training the Afghan forces in relation to internal security. Minister Vela said that the former Gendarmerie chiefs did not have a good cooperation with the interior ministry leadership, including in relation to the declassification of documents regarding the violent repression of an anti-government rally on August 10, 2018. On Friday the former Social Democratic interior minister Carmen Dan was heard by the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism as a witness in the case regarding the gendarmes’ intervention at the protests.
Migrants — 23 citizens from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan who intended to illegally reach western European countries were stopped at the Romanian-Serbian border. The police found them in a utility van registered in Romania. They said they entered Romania crossing the border on foot and then they were taken over by a Romanian. The suspect, aged 21, is now being investigated for migrant trafficking. (translation by L. Simion)
