December 28, 2024 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 28.12.2024, 20:00
Election – The first round of the presidential election in Romania might take place on March 23, 2025, and the decisive round on April 6, the media in Bucharest announced on Saturday, citing political sources from the government coalition made up of the PSD-PNL-UDMR. Organized on time, on November 24, 2024, the first round was invalidated by the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR), which, based on documents provided by the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT), invoked the interference of an unnamed state actor. Running in the second round, scheduled for December 8 were the independent nationalist Călin Georgescu and the opposition USR leader, Elena Lasconi. In the Diaspora, where the polling stations for the decisive round opened on December 6, tens of thousands of Romanians had already voted until the CCR decided to invalidate the first round. The costs of those invalidated elections is said to be almost 1.4 billion lei (the equivalent of about 280 billion Euros). On December 21, the second and last five-year presidential mandate of the current president, Klaus Iohannis, expired but his mandate was extended until the election of a new head of state, to be validated by the CCR.
Ordinance – On Saturday, talks were held in Bucharest on the Emergency Ordinance regarding the reduction of public sector expenses, between the social-democratic Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and the representatives of employers’ associations and trade unions that are part of the National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue. The union leaders believe that the freezing of salaries means a decrease in the incomes of the state employees, and the employers’ associations believe that the coalition government (PSD-PNL-UDMR) will manage to reduce the budget deficit next year, if it applies the measures included in the document. It stipulates that in 2025 state employment will be blocked, overtime will be compensated with free time, state salaries and pensions will be frozen. The government claims that it thus wants to reduce budget expenses by 19 billion lei (almost 4 billion Euros), i.e. 1% of the GDP, and, in parallel, to improve the lives of Romanians and maintain investment programs.
Crime report – Romania is among the states with the lowest level of crime, offering a more favorable situation from this point of view than many Western European countries, shows a Romanian Interior Ministry (MAI) press release based on the reports of the US Department of State and the European Commission. According to them, Romania is recognized as a very safe country for citizens and tourists. In the ‘Report for American citizens traveling abroad’, Romania is indicated as having a low and very low risk of crime. According to the MAI, official international documents highlight Romania’s significant progress in combating crime, confirming its status as a safe country. In recent years, Romania has recorded figures below the European and international average for crimes such as robberies, thefts and other acts committed with violence, the press release also shows.
Tennis – The Romanian tennis players Anca Todoni and Ana Bogdan on Saturday qualified for the main draw of the WTA 500 tournament in Brisbane. Ana Bogdan faced the Colombian Emiliana Arango in the decisive match, whom she defeated 6-2, 6-4, and will debut in the main draw in Brisbane against the Russian Anastasia Potapova. Anca Todoni won the match with Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, 6-2, 6-3, and will debut in the competition against Cristina Bucsa from Spain. The WTA 500 tournament in Brisbane (Australia), with total prizes worth more than 1.5 million dollars, will take place between December 29 and January 5.
Gas – The Russian energy giant Gazprom announced on Saturday that it would suspend gas exports to the Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet state with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population) from January 1, 2025, due to an alleged unpaid debt by the Moldovan authorities. The company claims that it reserves the right to take any action, including termination of the supply contract. Russia delivers to the Republic of Moldova about 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year, through Ukraine invaded by Moscow’s troops. The gas is transported through pipelines to the pro-Russian separatist region of Transndniester, which uses the gas to generate cheap electricity, which it then sells to the rest of Moldova. (LS)
