June 13, 2017 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 13.06.2017, 19:45
GRINDEANU CABINET — The fate of the Grindeanu Cabinet will be decided on Wednesday’s meeting of the Social Democratic Party’s Executive committee, which will assess each minister and discuss potential reshuffles. At the end of last week the party leader Liviu Dragnea, who is also the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, expressed his discontent regarding the activity of certain ministers. Dragnea said he rules out changing the entire structure of the cabinet. In turn, Prime Minister Sorin Grideanu said he is conducting his own analysis and said he was pleased with his Cabinet’s overall performance. In another development, the presidency announced it was monitoring political moves aimed at changing the Government’s structure.
IOHANNIS — Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will pay an official visit to Berlin over June 19-21. The president will meet his German counterpart, Frank Walter Steinmeir and Chancellor Angela Merkel. Talks will focus on boosting bilateral relations and hot topics on the international and European agenda. On June 20 the President will be guest of honor in a ceremony commemorating the victims of refuge and expulsion at the German History Museum, where he will also deliver a speech. According to the presidency, 2017 marks 50 years since the launch of Romanian-German relations, 25 years since the cooperation and partnership agreement was signed between the two countries and 10 years since Romania joined the EU. Over June 22-23, president Iohannis will attend the European Summer Council, with migration, defense policy and Brexit as the main topics on its agenda. On the sidelines of the Council meeting Klaus Iohannis will also meet with the new French president, Emmanuel Macron.
PROSECUTION – Romanian prosecutors re-started the criminal prosecution of the former president of Romania Traian Basescu, for abuse of office in the so called ‘Flora’ case, after judges with the High Court of Cassation and Justice admitted the request filed by the Prosecutor’s Office. The case was re-opened after a businessman filed a complaint, accusing Traian Basescu of having illegally returned, back in 2003, when he was the mayor of Bucharest, a 40,000 square meter piece of land. The commercial complex ‘Flora’ was later built on that ground. The businessman claims that Basescu abused his office by endorsing the return of the property, and the damage is estimated at more than 100 million Euros.
STATISTICS – According to the National Statistics Institute, the average income in Romania went up by 1% in April, reaching the equivalent of 520 Euro, which is a historic record. The most significant increases were reported in relation to financial transactions and auxiliary activities, while decreases were recorded in the oil and natural gas extraction industry and in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. In another development, the number of pensioners dropped to under 5.2 million, and the average pension went up by 8.1%, reaching some 220 Euro. The pensioners/employees ratio is still 9 to10, which means that 10 employees support 9 pensioners.
COMMEMORATION — The first president in post-communist Romania, Ion Iliescu, the then Prime Minister Petre Roman and Intelligence chief Virgil Magureanu were indicted and accused of crimes against humanity on Tuesday in the case investigating the miners’ raids of June 13-15, 1990, which put an end to a large-scale rally against the left wing power instated after the fall of the communist dictatorship in December 1989. Against the background of violent clashes in the capital, which the army had already managed to stifle, the then president of the country Ion Iliescu claimed the right wing had planned a coup and called on the population to defend the democratic institutions. As a result of the call, miners from Jiu Valley came to Bucharest and attacked the University, the headquarters of the main opposition parties and the offices of independent publications. Their raids ended in four deaths, hundreds of people wounded and more than one thousand people arrested abusively. Romania’s image abroad was also affected by the violent raid of June 1990.
RUSSIA — The Kremlin on Tuesday said the unauthorized anticorruption protests organized by opposition leader Aleksei Navalny are a threat to public opinion. Navalny was sentenced to 30 days in prison. In turn, Russian officials said they will not respond to Washington’s plea to release the protesters from arrest. Large protests were staged in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the Russian riot police launching an assault on the crowd after protests started voicing anti-regime slogans. Some 2,000 people were arrested, including scores of students and young people. (Translated by V. Palcu)
