COVID-19<\/b> 36,269 new SARS-CoV-2 infections were
\nreported for the past 24 hours in Romania, along with 193 related fatalities,
\nthe Strategic Communication Group announced on Tuesday. Since the start of the
\npandemic 2 years ago, more than 2 million Romanians have had the disease and
\nover 60,000 died. Meanwhile, since the start of the vaccine roll-out in
\nDecember 2020, over 8 million people have received a full vaccination cycle,
\nand 2.4 million have also got the booster dose.<\/p>\n
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\n
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MOLDOVA
\n<\/b>The number of supporters of
\nthe R. of Moldova’s union with Romania is growing, according to an opinion poll
\nquoted by Radio Chi\u015fin\u0103u on Tuesday. Over 34%
\nof the respondents in Moldova would vote in favour of the union, says the poll
\ncommissioned by IDIS Viitorul in Chi\u0219in\u0103u and the Institute of Political
\nSciences and International Relations with the Romanian Academy. This is a
\nrecord-high number of union supporters, over 10 times higher than in 2010. According
\nto the same poll, which focused on citizens’ perception of the relations
\nbetween Moldova and Romania, over 62% of the people with dual citizenship would
\nvote for the union. However, in the case of new tensions similar to the one in
\nUkraine, more people would back a military alliance with Russia (22.5%) than
\nwith Romania (12.5%). <\/p>\n
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\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
POLITICS <\/b>The Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Tuesday that a criminal
\ninvestigation was initiated with respect to an incident in Parliament, where
\nthe Romanian energy minister Virgil Popescu was assaulted by the co-president
\nof the nationalist opposition party AUR, George Simion. Popescu had previously filed
\na criminal complaint against Simion. While attending a Chamber of Deputies
\nmeeting on Monday, the Liberal minister Virgil Popescu was insulted and
\nassaulted by Simion. The meeting was suspended, and subsequently resumed with only
\nthe opposition MPs from AUR and USR in attendance.<\/p>\n
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\n
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POLLUTION <\/b>Romanian authorities have today launched 2 programmes, RABLA Clasic and
\nRABLA Plus 2022, with a combined budget of around 240 million euros. Under the
\n2 programmes, the Government provides subsidies for scrapping old and heavily
\npolluting motor vehicles. The same rules apply as in previous years, but
\nnovelties have also been introduced. One of them is the option of using 2
\nvouchers obtained through scrapping used vehicles for the purchase of a hybrid
\nor electric vehicle. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
UKRAINE <\/b>The president of France Emmanuel Macron discussed with the Russian
\nleader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday about the need for dialogue in the
\ncontext of the Ukraine standoff. At the end of the meeting, Emmanuel Macron said
\nall parties should behave responsibly in this crisis. He pleaded for
\nmaintaining the current system of agreements concerning European security, and
\nsuggested that a system of concrete security guarantees be put together for all
\nstakeholders. In turn, Putin said a number of ideas and proposals put forth by
\nthe French president may pave the way for the de-escalation of the current
\ncrisis over Ukraine. Vladimir Putin also added that Russia and France have
\nshared concerns regarding security in Europe. Today the French president meets
\nhis Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, in the first official
\nvisit of a French president to that country in 24 years. Macron has repeatedly
\ndiscussed the need to deescalate tensions and to find diplomatic solutions to
\nthe situation in the east of Europe, and emphasised that finding a political
\nway out of the standoff was his priority. Meanwhile in Washington, following
\ntalks at the White House with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US president
\nJoe Biden said diplomacy remains the best way to settle the Ukraine crisis. He warned
\nhowever that the US and NATO will be prepared in case Russia attacks Ukraine. (tr. A.M.P.<\/i>)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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