October 16, 2019
A roundup of domestic and international news.
Newsroom, 16.10.2019, 14:00
Negotiations — The Prime Minister designate, Ludovic Orban has 10 days to present Parliament with his governing team and programme. In order to be endorsed, the new cabinet needs the vote of 233 senators and deputies out of the total 465. So far, the Liberals can only count on their own Senators and Deputies, and on the ones representing the ethnic minorities. Most of the other parties that helped dismiss the Dancila Cabinet have their own terms and conditions or are waiting to see what the new Cabinet proposes. As for the Social Democratic Party, they said they would not endorse a Liberal government.
Protests — Violent protests continued on Tuesday evening in Barcelona, after nine Catalan independence leaders were handed jail sentences of between nine and 13 years by Spains Supreme Court on Monday. The separatists were convicted of sedition over their role in an independence referendum in 2017, which Spain said was illegal. Another three were found guilty of disobedience and fined, but not jailed. All 12 defendants denied the charges.
Cars — In September 2019, EU demand for new passenger cars increased by 14.5% to reach 1.2 million units registered in total. Last month, all EU member states posted increases, except for Bulgaria. Four of the five major EU markets even recorded double-digit gains: Germany (+22.2%), Spain (+18.3%), France (+16.6%) and Italy (+13.4%). By contrast, in the United Kingdom market recovery was very limited (+1.3%), as Brexit-related uncertainties continued to affect consumer confidence. Over the first nine months of 2019, new car registrations were down 1.6% compared to the same period the year before. In the same period, however, car sales increased in Lithuania, 42.8% and Romania, 16.4%. The Romanian car market in September went up by over 118%, with 6,046 cars registered, as against 2,771 in the same period of 2018.
Turkey – Russia’s president Vladimir Putin spoke with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan about Syria by phone and invited him to visit Russia in the next few days, the Kremlin said late on Tuesday. The Kremlin said that in their phone conversation, Putin and Erdogan agreed to ensure Syria’s territorial integrity. Turkey launched an offensive targeting Syrian Kurdish fighters last week after US troops allied to them pulled out.
Elections – The presidential election campaign continues in Romania. There are 14 candidates running for the presidential seat. Among them is the incumbent president Klaus Iohannis representing the National Liberal Party, the outgoing prime minister Viorica Dancila from the Social Democratic Party, Dan Barna representing the USR-PLUS alliance and former MEP Mircea Diaconu, supported by Pro Romania Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE). Also in the presidential race are professor, writer and diplomat Theodor Paleologu representing the conservative right-of-centre People’s Movement Party, Kelemen Hunor from the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), representatives of non-parliamentary parties such as Cătălin Ivan, Ninel Peia, Sebastian-Constantin Popescu, John-Ion Banu, Ramona-Ioana Bruynseels and Viorel Cataramă, as well as Bogdan Stanoevici and Alexandru Cumpănaşu as independent candidates. As many as 714 polling stations have been opened in the Diaspora, and the vote by mail has already started. The first round of voting will be held on November 10, and the second round on November 24. Under a government decision, Romanians abroad can vote for 3 days, from November 8 to 10 in the first round, and from November 22 to 24 in the second round and voting can be extended until midnight if there are people who have not managed to cast their vote by 9 pm, the official closing hour of polling stations.
IMF – The International Monetary Fund has revised upwards the forecasts regarding the growth of Romanian economy this year, but it also envisages an increase in the inflation rate and the current account deficit, reads the latest World Economic Outlook, published on Tuesday. In April, the IMF forecasted that Romania would register an economic growth rate of 3.1% this year, followed by 3% in 2020. However, in Tuesdays report, the institution speaks of a 4% economic growth rate in 2019 and 3.5% in 2020. These new forecasts are in line with those of the World Bank, which last week spoke of a 4.2% growth rate this year. Also, the World Bank is expecting a growth in the GDP in 2020 and 2021, of 3.6% and 3.2% respectively.
(Translated by Elena Enache)
