November 23, 2023

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 23.11.2023, 13:44

AID – The Bucharest government has announced that it will grant emergency aid, for accommodation and meals, to families and people with or without Romanian citizenship evacuated from the Gaza Strip. A single person or a family with up to five members will receive around 400 euros per month, and the family with more than five members will receive 600 euros for accommodation. Also, 120 euros per month will be granted to each person, for food. This aid is granted for a maximum period of four months, starting in November. The Romanian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday evening that another group of 12 Romanian citizens and family members was evacuated from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, through the Rafah crossing. They were taken over by the representatives of the Romanian Embassy in Egypt, and a mobile team of the Foreign Ministrys Crisis Cell accompanies them to Cairo to board a plane for Romania. The Romanian Ministry continues the dialogue with the Israeli and Egyptian authorities in order to facilitate the evacuation of the other Romanian citizens and family members in the Gaza Strip who requested that, depending on the developments on the ground and the agreement of the parties involved. 249 Romanian citizens and their family members have so far been evacuated from the Gaza Strip.

PRESIDENCY – The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has official talks with his Senegalese counterpart, Macky Sall today in Dakar. On this occasion, bilateral documents will be signed. Also today, President Iohannis will participate in the inauguration of the United Nations House in Senegal, in the opening of an exhibition of traditional masks and will have a meeting with Senegalese specialists who studied at universities in Romania. On Wednesday, the Romanian head of state travelled to the island of Gorée in Senegal, a former outpost of the slave trade, today an UNESCO heritage site, where he met with local officials. Senegal is the last leg of the African tour of President Iohannis, whose agenda also included Kenya, Tanzania and Cape Verde. The tour, the first of its kind by a Romanian President in the last three decades, takes place after the adoption, this month, of Romanias National Strategy for Africa, a document which the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest says it acknowledges the essential role of the African continent in shaping global trends in the 21st century.

PROTESTS – Employees with the Romanian Health Ministry will protest for three hours daily, starting today, to signal the gaps in the public salary system, and the violation of the unitary payment principle, provided by the law. Protesters draw attention to the risk that the main institution which coordinates and initiates public health policies will run out of specialists, many of them choosing to change jobs. Public administration employees are also protesting against the discriminatory payment of different categories of public sector employees. The trade union of the Bucharest subway workers is also threatening new protests, unhappy with the provisions of the law that cuts public expenditure, enforced on November 1st. The normative act, the trade unionists claim, leaves them without the salary increases and bonuses that have already been negotiated and included in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The new law also upsets the railway unions, who announced a strike as of November 27, 2023. During the strike, one third of normal activity will be ensured, in keeping with the legal provisions.

CORRUPTION – As many as 23 Romanian border policemen in Calafat, on the Romanian border with Bulgaria, investigated in a corruption case, have been placed under temporary arrest for 30 days. They had been detained two days ago for alleged bribe taking and giving and for abuse of office. According to the investigators, in 2022 they repeatedly demanded small sums of money and products from the drivers who transported goods across the border. The amounts received as bribe have allegedly been shared with the border policemens superiors.

ELECTIONS – The far-right anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) came out first in Wednesday’s parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, according to exit polls cited by international media. The populists led by Geert Wilder are believed to have won 37 of the 150 parliamentary seats. They are followed by the left-wing alliance of the former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, with 25 seats, and a centre-right party with 23. Commentators say the vote marks a sharp turn to the right of the Dutch citizens, raising fears in Brussels since Wilder promised a referendum on the country’s EU membership. On the other hand, it is unlikely that the populists will come to power, because the leaders of the other important parties have given assurances that they will not participate in a coalition led by the PVV. (EE)