MAYOR Romanian musician Octavian Ursu, born
\nin Bucharest, has become the Christian-Democratic mayor of the German city of
\nGorlitz after defeating in the second round of the local election Sebastian
\nWippel a former policeman, representative of the Alternative for Germany. The
\nRomanian mustered 55% of the votes in the second round of the election. Ursu,
\n51, graduated from the Music Conservatory in Bucharest and left for Germany
\nwhere he got hired at the Gorlitz philharmonic as a soloist. In 2009, he enlisted
\nwith Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and in 2010 he took over the
\nmunicipal constituency in Gorlitz. In 2014, Ursu got elected in the legislature
\nof the Federal State of Saxony. The Romanian got support from celebrities from
\nGermany and abroad who signed a petition urging the citizens to vote against
\n‘hatred and hostility, isolation and discord’. Famous movies like ‘Inglorious
\nBasterds’ and ‘Monuments Men’ have been shot in Gorlitz. <\/p>\n
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DIPLOMACY The head of the Romanian
\ndiplomacy, Teodor Melescanu, is in Luxembourg to participate in the EU Foreign
\nAffairs Council’s meeting. According to a communiqu\u00e9 from the Ministry of
\nForeign Affairs in Bucharest, the member states are holding talks on ways of
\nimproving the Common Foreign Policy and Security. The participants are also
\ntackling topical issues such as the situation in the Republic of Moldova, an
\nex-soviet Romanian-speaking country, and the latest developments in Sudan. They
\nwill also be discussing the situation in the Middle East with their Jordanian
\ncounterpart Ayman Safadi. A meeting of the foreign and defence ministers from
\nthe EU countries is also taking place today. High on the agenda is the process
\nof implementing the EU Global Strategy. <\/p>\n
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FOOTBALL Romania’s under-21 football
\nside is today taking on Croatia in the European Football Championship in Italy
\nand San Marino. In the same group C, England will be playing France. In the
\nfirst matches in group A, Poland defeated Belgium 3-2 and Italy obtained a 3-1
\nwin against Spain. In group B today, Serbia will be playing Austria and Germany
\ntakes on Denmark. This is Romania’s second participation in a final tournament
\nafter that in 1998 staged in Bucharest. Back then Romania ended in the last
\nposition out of 8 participants. The finals will take place on June 30th.
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TENNIS Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, a former world number one player,
\nis currently ranking 8th in the standings of the world’s
\nprofessional tennis players published today. First in the ranking comes Naomi
\nOsaka of Japan, followed by Ashleigh Barty of Australia and Karolina Pliskova
\nof the Czech Republic. Top 100 also includes another two Romanians, Mihaela
\nBuzarnescu, currently ranking 42nd and Sorana Cirstea who comes in
\nthe 77th position. <\/p>\n
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CARS
\nOver two thirds of the cars registered in Romania in the first five months of
\nthe year are second-hand purchases. According to the National Directorate for
\nLicenses and Registration, out of the 240 thousand vehicles registered in
\nRomania since January until the end of May only 60 thousand are new vehicles.
\nNevertheless, the number of new vehicles registered in this period is 20%
\nhigher than the similar period of 2018. The so-called ‘Rabla’ programme has
\nsignificantly contributed to this increase as under this programme, over 30
\nthousand people have so far benefited from bonuses to scrap their old
\nvehicles. The Romanians’ mostly preferred brands are the local Dacia, followed
\nby Volkswagen, Skoda, Renault and Ford. At the end of last year Romania had
\nover 8 million vehicles registered, 7% higher than in 2017. <\/p>\n
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(translated by bill)<\/p>\n
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