DESIGNATION – President Klaus
\nIohannis on Tuesday designated the current Finance Minister, Liberal Florin C\u00ee\u0163u, as the country’s new Prime
\nMinister. The announcement came after the second round of talks held on Tuesday
\nwith parliamentary parties. Florin C\u00ee\u0163u was nominated by the leaders of
\nthe National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union – PLUS Alliance and the
\nDemocratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, who on Monday signed an
\nagreement for government for the next four years. After the talks the coalition
\nleaders said they want the new Cabinet to be sworn in as quickly as possible in
\norder to make the necessary reforms. The Prime Minister designate Florin C\u00ee\u0163u promised he would do
\neverything in his power to ensure stable and long-term governance, also
\npointing out the priority of his Cabinet would be to overcome the health crisis
\nand economic recovery. Although invited to attend the talks, the Social
\nDemocratic Party, which won the largest number of votes in the recent
\nparliamentary elections, did not show up. After the elections, the Social
\nDemocrats said the best solution given the coronavirus pandemic is a national
\nunity government led by the doctor Alexandru Rafila, Romania’s representative
\nto the World Health Organization. The leaders of the Alliance for the Union of
\nRomanians, which grabbed the fourth largest number of votes in the December 6
\nparliamentary election, also attended the talks, saying they won’t be voting
\nfor the C\u00ee\u0163u Cabinet. <\/p>\n
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COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – Some 5,000 new
\ncoronavirus cases were recorded on Tuesday in Romania, with total infections
\nnow nearing 600,000. Tuesday also saw 155 new fatalities, taking the death toll
\nto 14,636. 1,252 Covid patients are in intensive care.<\/p>\n
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RESTRICTIONS – Globally, there
\nare over 77.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases and some 1.7 million
\nfatalities. There are over 320,000 deaths in the United States. In Europe,
\ngovernments have imposed special restrictions around the winter holidays to
\nprevent the further spread of the virus. Non-essential shops are closed in
\nGermany until January 10, Italy is under lockdown around Christmas and New
\nYear. In France, people will be allowed to leave their homes and the night-time
\ncurfew will be lifted. In Poland, schools, restaurants and ski slopes remain
\nclosed until January 17, a travel ban is in place in Croatia and tourism is
\nbanned in Bulgaria until the end of January. The emergence of a new strain of
\nthe virus in Great Britain has caused panic around the world. The World Health
\nOrganisation says, however, that this new strain is not out of
\ncontrol.<\/p>\n
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VACCINE – The European
\nMedicines Agency on Monday approved the Covid Pfizer BioNTech vaccine which is
\nalready being rolled out in the UK and the United States. The authorization is
\nvalid in all 27 EU member states and provides solid scientific foundation for
\nthe implementation of vaccination programmes and a framework for continuous
\nsupervision and control, said the Agency chief Emer Cooke. European countries
\nare planning to kick-start the vaccination campaign on December 27. The
\nRomanian authorities say they are also ready to begin mass vaccination on this
\ndate. The first 10,000 doses are expected to reach Romania on Saturday, and the
\nfirst to receive the vaccine are medical workers in infectious diseases
\nhospitals.<\/p>\n
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1989 – The heroes of the
\n1989 anti-communist Revolution were honored on Tuesday in Bucharest and other
\ncities in Romania on the 31st anniversary of the fall of communism.
\nA remembrance service and other events were held in Bucharest, including
\noutside the headquarters of the public radio and television stations. Military
\nfestivities were held around the country, and flowers were laid at the
\nmemorials dedicated to the heroes of the Revolution, in strict observance of
\nthe physical distancing rules in place. President Klaus Iohannis issued a
\nstatement saying justice must do its duty in the case of those guilty for the
\nbloody reprisals in December 1989. The Romanian anti-communist uprising began
\nin Timi\u0219oara (west) on December 16 and on the 21st began to spread
\nto Bucharest and other cities. Romania was the only country in the former
\neastern bloc where the regime change occurred through bloodshed and where the
\nformer communist leaders were executed. More than 1,000 people were killed in
\nthe uprising and some 3,000 wounded. (C. Mateescu & V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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