November 19, 2014
A look at some of the top stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 19.11.2014, 12:00
Romania’s Constitutional Court has rejected all challenges to the second round of voting in the presidential elections of November 16. Preliminary results issued by the Central Election Bureau, Klaus Iohannis got 54.45% of the vote, as opposed to his opponent, current PM Victor Ponta, who got 45.57%. The Bureau has until Friday to send to the highest court the final results of Sunday’s election. The court has final say in the validation of this result.
Romania has two new ministers, Mihnea Motoc for foreign affairs and Hegedus Csilla for culture. Motoc is a former ambassador, and currently permanent Romanian representative with the EU. He is set to replace Teodor Melescanu, who announced his resignation yesterday, a week after taking over the portfolio. The position was vacated as a result of the scandal around the first round of presidential elections for Romanians abroad. The then minister, Titus Corlatean, lost his position due to this same situation. The newly proposed minister of culture, Hegedus Csilla, is currently an undersecretary in the Ministry of Culture.
The Romanian Senate, meeting in plenary session, voted to lift immunity for the former Social Democratic minister of education, Ecaterina Andronescu. She and Serban Mihailescu, whose immunity is about to get lifted by a similar vote, are investigated as part of the so-called Microsoft case, involving abusive contracts for software licenses. The Chamber of Deputies endorsed the application for investigation for three members of parliament suspected of corruption.
12 former heads of state from CEE are on Thursday and Friday in Bucharest for the international conference dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the fall of communism. The former king of Romania will host an official dinner. Among the participants are former Polish leader Lech Walesa, former Romanian president Emil Constantinescu, Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine, and Hans-Gert Pottering, former chairman of the European Parliament.
The Gaudeamus Textbook Fair opened in Bucharest, organized by Radio Romania. Visitors can enjoy 750 publishing events, a record number for this fair. At this 21st edition, over 300 publishers from Romania and abroad are in attendance.
Romania’s national football team this past Tuesday has clinched a 2-nil win in the friendly against Denmark. The game, which was Romania’s last scheduled fixture in 2014, was held at the National Arena in Bucharest. Laos on the national Arena last week Romanian snatched a 2-nil win against Northern Ireland. With 10 points out of four games played, Romania top qualifying Group F table for Euro 2016, to be hosted by France. The confrontation against Northern Ireland coincided with Anghel Iordanescu’s return as national team manager. We recall that in the 1990s, with Iordanescu at the helm, Romania’s national squad had its best run ever, reaching as far as the 1994 World Championship quarterfinals in USA.
