May 12, 2017
Air traffic controllers on strike in Romania; Romanian troops join allies in exercises on the Black Sea
Newsroom, 12.05.2017, 14:06
FLIGHTS — Romanian air traffic controllers went on a work-in strike for two hours, guiding only around one third of flights, including humanitarian, medical, as well as search and rescue flights. Controllers protest mainly the lack of a collective labor contract in 2016-2017, and the fact that hiring is frozen. After the conflict in Ukraine started, the number of flights in Romania has increased significantly. The latest strike by air traffic controllers occurred in July 2015.
MILITARY — Hundreds of Romanian, British and US troops are taking part in a four day Black Sea exercise. Three Romanian ships, including the King Ferdinand frigate, alongside destroyer the USS Oscar Austin, are running anti-submarine and surface-to-surface combat exercises. Surface-to-air combat exercises are also scheduled, with two Romanian Air Force MiG-21 LanceR and two Royal Air Force Thyphoon fighters providing the simulated threat.
EUROVISION — On Thursday night, Romania qualified to the Eurovision finals, taking place on Saturday in Kiev. In the semi-finals, Ilinca and Alex Florea sang Yodel It!, by Mihai Alexandru, managing to make it into the final 26 acts of the evening, on 20th place. The ten finalists picked on Thursday, Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Croatia, Hungary, Denmark, Israel, Norway, Holland, and Austria, will join the 10 semi-finalists picked on Tuesday. This year, Ukraine qualified straight for the finals. This year, the Eurovision contest is under the Celebrate Diversity slogan.
TENNIS — Romanias best tennis player, Simona Halep, 8th seeded in the WTA, plays today against Anstasjia Sevastova of Lithuania, 22nd seeded, in the semi-finals of the Madrid tournament, with 5.4 million dollars in prize money. If she qualifies, Halep will play the winner of the contest between Svetlana Kuznetsova, 9th seeded, and Kristina Mladenovic of France, 17th seeded. Halep qualified for the semi-finals in the doubles as well, joined by co-national Irina Begu, where they will be playing against Timea Babos of Hungary and Andrea Hlavaskova of the Czech Republic.
ELECTIONS — Romania has scheduled partial local elections on June 11, covering 5 municipalities, 9 towns and 35 communes. According to the National Audio-Visual Council in Bucharest, the election campaign starts on May 27th, concluding on June 10th.
CONGRESS — In Cluj-Napoca, the Save Romania Union is holding until Sunday its first congress. The political party is the third formation in Parliament. The delegates will elect their leadership, deciding on changes in their statute. Leader Nicusor Dan said in the opening that they want to advance to second place in the country, with 2020 election results allowing them to designate the prime ministerial candidate. They also want to compete for mayors offices in major Romanian cities. In 2016, one year after turning from an NGO into a party, the Save Romania Union got more votes than the Liberals, but came in second after the Social Democrats.
