November 15, 2019

A roundup of domestic and international news.

Newsroom, 15.11.2019, 14:19

COMMEMORATION – The sufferance of the heroes of the anti-communist fight in Romania must not be forgotten, Liberal Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has said in a message on the occasion of the anniversary of 32 years since the workers’ uprising in Brasov, in central Romania. The uprising of November 15, 1987 was a major event, seen as heralding the imminent fall of communist rule in the country. The 1987 riot broke out at a Brasov truck factory, following a spontaneous strike by angry workers. As communist authorities refused to have any talks with protesters, the workers stormed the local communist party’s offices and set fire to Nicolae Ceausescu’s portrait. The authorities deployed special security forces to repress the riot and arrested hundreds of people. Many of them have never returned home.

BREXIT – More than half a million applications for EU settled status were received by the UK’s Home Office in October, taking the total to 2.4 million, euractive.com reports. The spike in numbers is no surprise since the UK was due to exit the EU on 31 October, only for EU leaders to agree to another three month extension after politicians refused to pass the Withdrawal Agreement finalised by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU leaders in time to meet the deadline. Polish citizens lodged 456,600, the highest number, followed by 388,600 Romanian nationals and 259,300 applications from Italian citizens. However, 40% of these have been given pre-settled status, a figure which increased to 44% in October, according to euractive.com. Having pre-settled status allows applicants to stay in the UK for five more years, at the end of which they would have to apply again for settled status.

DECISIONS — The members of the Save Romania Union (USR), the third largest party in the country’s parliament, have five days to decide, through voting, if they want Dan Barna to continue to be the party leader. Barna has announced he will step back if the party members ask him to. The consultations come after the first round of the presidential election, with Dan Barna representing the USR-PLUS Alliance, not qualifying for the second round.

COMMISSIONER – The Romanian MEP Adina Vălean, nominated for the transport commissioner post, was heard on Thursday by the European Parliaments specialist committees, along with the commissioners nominated by France and Hungary. On Tuesday she was given the green light by the Committee on Legal Affairs, which looked at possible conflicts of interest. Also on Tuesday, Vălean was heard by the joint European affairs committees of the Romanian Parliament, whose opinion is advisory. When the formal hearings are over, the president elect of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will present the full commission and its programme to the European Parliament on the 27th of November.

ELECTIONS – The election campaign for the second round of the presidential elections has started and will end until November 23 and 7 a.m. President Klaus Iohannis won the first round of the presidential elections in Romania with 37.82% of the votes, followed by Viorica Dăncilă, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, now in opposition, with 22.26% of the votes, according to the final count, the Central Election Bureau has announced. Dan Barna, the candidate of the USR PLUS Alliance was in third place with 15.02%. Voter turnout stood at 51.19%, amounting to 9,359,673 people. 25,319 voters cast their ballots by post. President Klaus Iohannis, supported by the National Liberal Party, will be facing Viorica Dăncilă in the decisive round on the 24th of November.

FOOTBALL – The Romanian national football team is today playing Sweden in the 2020 European Championship preliminaries. Romania ranks 3rd in Group F with 14 points, and needs a win to keep its chances of qualifying alive. Coach Cosmin Contra has called up 24 players to the national squad, 9 of whom are playing in the Romanian domestic championship, while the other 15 are playing in different leagues abroad. Some have been surprised with Contra’s decision to leave out Genoa’s goalkeeper Ionut Radu or Galatasaray Istanbul’s forward Florin Andone. Instead Cosmin Contra has called up midfielder Constantin Budescu and forward Denis Alibec, both playing for Astra Giurgiu.

(Translated by E. Enache)