THE WEEK IN REVIEW

March 18-22, 2024

Ştefan Stoica, 23.03.2024, 13:32

Electoral moves

The Social Democrat-Liberal coalition in power in Romania chose physician Cătălin Cîrstoiu, the director of a major Bucharest hospital, as a joint candidate for Bucharest City Hall. The decision, announced this week, comes less than three months before the local elections, which will be held, together with the European Parliament elections, on June 9. Formally, Cîrstoiu will remain independent, and will be helped in the most important electoral competition in Romania after the presidential one by the leaders of the PSD and PNL Bucharest organizations, the former general mayor Gabriela Firea, and the current Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja. Each of them hoped to represent the coalition in the battle for Bucharest, but the coalition decided otherwise. The mayoral elections are held in a single round, on the ‘winner takes all’ principle. Cârstoiu will have a difficult mission, some commentators say impossible, that of defeating the current general mayor, Nicuşor Dan, supported in the race for a new term from the United Right Alliance, formed by USR, PMP and Forta Dreptei. The Central Electoral Bureau had denied its registration in the elections, but the High Court of Cassation and Justice restored its rights. If an independent is the PSD-PNL option for Bucharest, an independent was also the choice for the first place on the common list of the European Parliament, in the person of Ramona Chiriac, head of the European Commission Representation in Romania. She accepted the challenge, but later gave up.

Famous fugitive brought back to the country

The former mayor of Baia Mare (north-west), Cătălin Cherecheș, will definitely not be able to run for the local elections. This week, he was extradited by authorities from Germany, where he had been trying to escape a five-year prison sentence for bribery. On November 24, 2023, shortly before the sentencing, Cherecheş fled the country. He was caught five days later in Bavaria. The head of justice, Alina Gorghiu, stated that her Ministry offered the German authorities guarantees related to the conditions in the penitentiary where Chiricheş will be incarcerated. Moreover, the conditions in Romanian prisons are often invoked by famous fugitives, convicted in Romania, before the courts of the countries where they seek an undeserved refuge. The Ministry of Justice has proposed a so-called ‘fugitive’ law, which adds a custodial sentence to those who try to evade the execution of a sentence. It also proposed that convicts who fled the country should be obliged to pay the costs of repatriation. Last year, the Romanian state spent over 10 million lei (2 million euros) to bring 800 fugitives into the country.

NPRR reforms delayed

A new renegotiation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan is no longer possible, so Romania must reach, by August 2026, 400 milestones and targets, European Commission experts point out. They say that Bucharest has carried out important reforms under the umbrella of the NPRR, in areas such as energy, justice, fighting corruption, and the pension system, but has lagged behind in essential chapters such as tax reform and corporate governance in state-owned enterprises. The European Commission is also concerned about the level of the fiscal deficit, which is approaching 7 percent, far above the set target for this year. In its defense, the Bucharest government cites the challenges that arose after the energy crisis, related to the increase in inflation, the effects of the war in Ukraine, or the distortions in supply chains, and assures that all the reforms provided for in the Resilience Plan will be implemented.

Social protests

In the middle of the week, employees of the Romanian postal service were, for two hours, on a warning strike, dissatisfied with the salary level. Union representatives say that over 60% of the postal employees work on minimum wage, and request a net increase of 400 lei, that is 80 euros, and a loyalty bonus of 25%. The postal workers’ union has announced that, if their list of demands is not resolved, they could go on an indefinite general strike. The management of the national company claims that, starting in June, salaries will increase by 250 lei on average. The postmen’s protest is in addition to those started, on Monday, by the employees of the town halls of villages. The union that represents the 60,000 civil servants say that they are the only ones in the budget system remaining at the salary level from 2021. There is also dissatisfaction in the health sector. The Sanitary Solidarity Federation considers the 20 percent salary increase proposed by the government and the pay for night duty to be insufficient, and organized a referendum on the initiation of a general strike.

Back in the arena

Romanian Simona Halep returned, after more than a year and a half, to a tennis court, where she did not have access due to her suspension for doping. The former world number one, double winner of the Grand Slam, played in the first round in Miami, a major tournament worth 1000 points, thanks to a wild card offered by the organizers. Halep was defeated by the Spaniard Paula Badosa, but she had a good performance, especially in the first set, which she won. Halep, 32, started from scratch in the WTA rankings. Her case will likely lead to rule changes, meaning that athletes who have had their suspensions overturned or reduced could get some of their points back. The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne reduced Simona’s sentence from 4 years to 9 months, so she could have returned to competitions as early as last July, so that now she would be in the top 100 players in the world.