November 18, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 18.11.2021, 19:55

Politics. The National Liberal Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Democratic
Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania on Thursday resumed talks on the
formation of a new government after the Liberals proposed Nicolae Ciuca for
prime minister. Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu said after the talks on
Thursday that it was agreed to have a government by next Thursday, but that it
is still not decided which of the two parties, the Social Democratic Party or
the National Liberal Party should designate the prime minister. The Liberals’
proposal, Nicolae Ciucă, said he was
optimistic that he would form a government. Wednesday’s talks were
suspended as each party insisted on being the first to designate the prime
minister as part of a rotation government.

COVID-19. Romania
reported a little over 3,000 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday hours, as well
as 332 related fatalities, 76 of them from an earlier date. According to
official data, 311 of the total number of deaths were reported among
unvaccinated patients. More than 1,600 patients are currently in intensive
care. The infection rate across the country is dropping, but scores of cities
still have incidence rates above 6 per 1,000 inhabitants. As of Wednesday
Romania has over 7 million fully vaccinated citizens.

Visit. The
European Commissioner for internal market Thierry Breton on Thursday made an
official visit to Bucharest where he had talks with Romanian political leaders
in particular about the worrying situation generated by the pandemic. He was
received by president Klaus Iohannis, with talks focusing on the vaccination
process. According to a press statement, the president said Romania must step
up its vaccination campaign, while the European commissioner said efforts would
continue at the level of the European Commission to combat the pandemic. Earlier,
Breton said Romania’s low vaccination rate is a health risk and an obstacle to
the full economic recovery of both Romania and the EU. He met the interim
Romanian health and defence ministers, as part of efforts to encourage all
parties involved, including healthcare professionals and NGOs, to help boost
the vaccination rate.

Explosion. Four people were killed and four others
were injured on Thursday in the explosion of an anti-personnel mine at the Băbeni weapons factory in Vâlcea, southern Romania. Investigations are
under way to establish the circumstances in which the accident occurred. The
activity of the factory focus on military technology, being a certified supplier
for the Romanian defence ministry and NATO.

Tennis. The Romanan tennis player
Horia Tecău on Thursday announced
his retirement from professional tennis in a social media post. Aged 36, he is
Olympic silver medalist and the winner of Grand Slam doubles titles, having
also won 38 doubles titles and played 24 finals. He won his Olympic medal in
Rio in 2016 together another Romanian player, Florin Mergea. In 2015 he won at
Wimbledon and in 2017 at the US Open. His last match as a professional player
was together with Kevin Krawietz of Germany on Thursday, when they ended
their run at the 2021 ATP Finals in Italy with a win against the
Spanish-Argentine pair Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos. (CM)