July 2, 2024
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 02.07.2024, 13:52
Football. Romania are this evening playing The Netherlands in Munich in the last 16 of the European Football Championship hosted by Germany. This is Romania’s first knockout stage match in the last 24 years. Many Romanian fans are attending the match on the stadium, their number expected to exceed the record high set at the group match against Ukraine, when 32,000 Romanian fans were at the match. Apart from the 7,000 official tickets provided by UEFA, many fans got tickets for the match by buying the tickets sold by the Belgian fans who bought them as early as last December, when they believed their side would win the group. The manager of the Romanian side Edi Iordănescu said The Netherlands are the favourites, but asked players to do their best. According to Radio Romania’s correspondents in Germany, winning against The Netherlands would bring Romania a place in the quarterfinals and a check of 2.5 million euros.
Elections. The consultations with political parties launched by prime minister Marcel Ciolacu to establish the dates of the presidential and parliamentary elections continued today. The Force of the Right wants the first round of the presidential elections to be held at the same time as the parliamentary elections, on the 1st or 8th December, the leader of this party, Ludovic Orban, said after today’s talks. While some parties, like the Save Romania Union and the Democratic Party of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania want the elections to be held on schedule, in November and December, others, like the Alliance for the Union of Romanians and the Social Liberal Humanist Party say they are ready for the presidential elections to be held in September, as proposed by the Social Democratic Party, in the ruling coalition. The talks initiated by prime minister Ciolacu came amid disagreements on the subject between the parties in the ruling coalition, the Social Democrats and the Liberals. At a meeting held at the same time as the consultations at the government headquarters, the Liberal leadership decided unanimously to support holding the presidential elections on schedule, in November, having previously agreed to hold them in September. Romania already saw European and local elections on 9th June.
Culture. The National Institute for Statistics recorded a growing appetite in Romania for library use and cultural activities. Last year, libraries lent over 19 million books to 2.4 million active users, 54,000 more than in 2022. The Institute also notes that last year, the number of visitors to museums and public galleries grew by over 3 million and that of spectators to performances and concerts by almost 2 million compared to the previous year.
Tennis. Romania’s Gabriela Ruse is today playing Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the opening round at Wimbledon, while Ana Bogdan is playing Cristina Bucşa of Spain. On Monday, Romanian qualifier Anca Alexia Todoni defeated Serbia’s Olga Danilovich in straight sets, while all the other Romanian players lost their first round matches: Irina Begu to China’s Lin Zhu, Sorana Cîrstea to Britain’s Sonay Kartal and Jaqueline Cristian to Bianca Andreescu.
