THE WEEK IN REVIEW

18-22 November, 2024

Bogdan Matei, 23.11.2024, 14:05

Romanians elect new president

The first voting station abroad for the first round of the Romanian presidential elections opened on Friday, at 12:00 local time, in Auckland, New Zealand. Australia, and Japan, and other countries in the region followed.

Voting abroad takes place over three days (November 22, 23 and 24). All Romanian citizens with the right to vote abroad, who have an identity card issued by the Romanian authorities and which is within the validity period, are expected to vote. Voting on Romanian territory is only on Sunday. About 19 thousand polling stations have been set up in the country and 950 abroad. There are 13 candidates remaining in the race for head of state. The decisive round of voting, which will be contested by the top two, is scheduled for December 8, a week after Romanians will also elect a new Parliament, on the 1st, which is also the national day,.

Epilogue to the Iohannis decade

Next month, President Klaus Iohannis will end his second and final five-year term granted to him by the Constitution. The joint plenary session of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies approved the establishment of a joint commission of inquiry to verify the expenses incurred by and for the Presidential Administration between 2014 and 2024. The commission is to establish the reasons that led to the secrecy of documents regarding the Presidential Administration’s expenses, as well as the legal basis on which this secrecy was established. At the same time, it will determine, among other things, the amounts paid for the rental of luxury private planes used during the president’s foreign and domestic trips, the expenses for paying for accommodation abroad under premium conditions, and with special amenities upon request, as well as the total number of foreign trips made by the president, and the total expenses for them.

F-35 for Romania

Bucharest’s decision to acquire advanced F-35 fighter jets represents an important step in the ongoing modernization of its military and will significantly contribute to NATO’s long-term defense and collective security. This is the message conveyed by the United States Ambassador to Bucharest, Kathleen Kavalec, at the launch of the Romanian Air Force’s transition program to the 5th generation aircraft, the F-35. The 32 aircraft for which the acquisition contract was signed, between the Romanian and American governments, represent the peak of aviation performance at this time – according to the Minister of Defense in the Bucharest government, Angel Tîlvăr.

Support for Chișinău

Romanian Foreign Minister Luminița Odobescu paid an official visit to the neighboring Republic of Moldova, together with the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, David Lammy.

The two were received by pro-Western President Maia Sandu and held trilateral consultations with her counterpart Mihai Popşoi. The discussions focused on long-term support for the stability and resilience of the Republic of Moldova, the reform agenda for the continuation of Chisinau’s European integration process, and the regional security situation in the context of the continued Russian aggression against Ukraine. Minister Odobescu also participated in the inauguration ceremony of the new building of the Mihai Eminescu Theoretical High School in Comrat (in the south, with a majority Gagauz population – ethnic Turks of Christian Orthodox confession – ed.). It was built with funding provided by the Government of Romania and the Ministry of Education in Chisinau. She emphasized that support for the education sector and for studies in Romanian represent investments in the European, democratic, and prosperous future of the Republic of Moldova.

The fictitious Russians from Vârfu Câmpului

The Prosecutor General’s Office ordered the detention of 12 people, most of them civil servants from the commune of Vârfu Câmpului and the town of Bucecea, in Botoşani County (north), accused of issuing fake Romanian identity documents for the benefit of citizens from the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation in exchange for money. Those detained are accused of aggravated bribery, forgery, conspiracy to commit bribe taking, IT fraud, and conspiracy to bribery. Investigators discovered that in the commune of Vârfu Câmpului, which officially has around 7,000 inhabitants, there are around 10,000 citizens originally from the former Soviet space.

Football: Romania-Kosovo, 3-0 at the green table

The Romanian national football team won the match in Bucharest with Kosovo, in the League of Nations, with a score of 3-0, at the “green table” – announced the European Football Association (UEFA), the organizer of the competition. The match, clearly dominated by the Kosovars, marked by shoving between players and booing by fans, but lacking major incidents on the pitch or in the stands, should have ended in a few dozen seconds, at the score of 0-0, when the guests left the field without a plausible reason. After an interruption of about 70 minutes, the referee returned to the field and whistled the end of the match, in the presence of only the Romanian players. Following UEFA’s decision, Romania finished in first place in Group C2 of the Nations League, with 18 points out of a possible 18, and was promoted to League B. Along with Spain, Greece, Cyprus, and Slovakia, Romania is among the European Union member states that have not recognized the independence of Kosovo, a former Serbian province with a majority Albanian population.