November 16, 2019
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Newsroom, 16.11.2019, 14:06
Election campaign – The election campaign continues in Romania in the run up to the second round of the presidential election due on November 24. Left in the presidential race after the first round of voting are Romania’s incumbent president Klaus Iohannis who is backed by the National Liberal Party and the former Social Democratic PM Viorica Dancila. According to data provided by the Central Electoral Bureau that were validated on Friday by the Constitutional Court in the first round of voting, when 14 candidates faced off, Klaus Iohannis obtained 37.82% of the votes and Viorica Dancila 22.26%. The vote turnout at national level was 51.19%. In the diaspora, where the Romanian citizens could vote for 3 days, a record vote turnout was reported, more than 675 thousand people. For the final round of the voting, the vote for the Romanian citizens living abroad will also last 3 days, starting on Friday at 12 a.m. local hours until 9 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. The voting program may be extended until midnight.
Tourism — 230 travel agencies from 16 countries are attending, until Sunday, Romania’s largest tourism fair held in Bucharest. The event gathers travel agencies, tour-operators as well as travel associations and county councils representing certain tourist areas. Visitors can choose holidays for the winter of 2019 as well as for the summer of 2020. Travel agencies provide discounts of up to 45% for travel packages.
Police – Over the past week Romanian police have undertaken missions to bring back to Romania 13 people who are wanted suspects- officials with the Romanian Police General Inspectorate announced on Saturday. 5 suspects under an international arrest warrant were extradited and handed over by the British authorities, 2 suspects from Germany and 2 from Belgium and 1 suspect from each of following countries: France, Italy, Austria and Slovenia. 7 people convicted in Slovakia were moved to prisons from Romania to finish their time in prison, 1 from Belgium, 2 from Germany and 2 from Austria. Also 11 suspects were handed over by the Romanian authorities to their counterparts from Austria, Belgium, the Republic of Moldova, France, Germany, Hungary and Great Britain, the officials with the Romanian Police General Inspectorate also said.
Football — Romania’s football team on Friday evening lost 0-2 against Sweden in Bucharest in their last but one match in Group F of the 2020 European Football Championship preliminaries. The Romanian eleven will end the preliminaries on Monday in Spain. The teams of Spain with 23 points and of Sweden with 18 points have already qualified to the next stage. Romania’s team is 3rd in the group with 14 points and it still has chances to qualify at the playoffs of the Champions League due in March. The drawing of lots for Euro 2020 will be held in Bucharest on November 30. Bucharest will also host 4 matches of the final tournament, 3 matches in the group phase and one match in the eight finals. On Thursday evening Romania’s Under 21 team defeated on home turf 4-1 the team of Finland, in group 8 of the 2021 European Championship preliminaries.
USR — The members of the Save Romania Union, the 3rd largest party in Romania’s Parliament, are voting online if Dan Barna, the party leader, should resign his position. Barna said he was expecting the result of the vote and was ready to resign, after dissatisfaction within the party with the result obtained in the first round of the presidential election, when he got only 15%, given that on May 26, the Save Romania Union party got 22% of the votes in the elections for the EP. (translation by L. Simion)
