THE event of the year
\n2015 in Romania was the devastating fire at the Bucharest nightclub ‘Colectiv’,
\nwhich killed more than 60 young people. On the night of October 30th, hundreds of young people, who were attending
\na rock concert, fell victim to the fire caused by the fireworks used by the
\nband during the concert, although the conditions for such a fireworks show were
\nimproper. The spontaneous solidarity of the people, who mobilized for an
\nunprecedented humanitarian effort, was impressive. The Romanian authorities
\ndeclared three days of national mourning and the place of the tragedy turned
\ninto a huge, open-air altar where Romanians, irrespective of their status, laid
\nflowers and lit candles. One day after the tragedy, a spontaneous march of
\nsilence took place: as many as 10 thousand people of all ages, dressed in black,
\nmarched on the streets of Bucharest in deep silence, which was more shattering
\nthan a yell of pain.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
When the national mourning was over, three times more
\nRomanians went out to the streets again to vent their feelings of revolt
\nagainst the authorities’ corruption and indifference, because in their opinion,
\nthat was the cause of the most serious tragedy registered in Romania in the past decades. Saying it would
\nbe a mistake to ignore the discontent of the people, the then Prime Minister,
\nVictor Ponta, resigned. After consultations with representatives of the
\nparliamentary parties and, for the first time, with civil society
\nrepresentatives, on November 10th President Klaus Iohannis entrusted
\nDacian Ciolo\u015f, a former European Commissioner for Agriculture, with the
\nformation of a new, technocratic government, made up of efficient ministers,
\nwith a clean record. The Ciolo\u015f cabinet was invested by Parliament on November
\n17. About one month later, the government scored its first success, as
\nParliament endorsed, by a large majority, the state and social security budget
\nbills for 2016. Healthcare, education, defense and investments are considered
\npriority domains alongside economic growth, which should be reflected in the
\nliving standards of each and every Romanian. And, in president Iohannis’s vision, the year that is about to start
\nshould be a year of change too, with Romanians beginning to trust their
\npoliticians again. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
As
\nrenewing politicians’ ideas and practices cannot be done without eradicating
\ncorruption, in 2015 the Romanian judiciary continued its offensive, by exposing
\nelements of the scourge that has been marring Romanian society for years. Both
\nright and left-wing politicians, who, protected by immunity, thought they were
\nabove the law, or powerful business people imagining they could buy anything
\nand anybody, were summoned and heard by the National Anti-corruption
\nDirectorate. The list of convicts included former ministers, MPs, mayors, local
\nand county councilors, prosecutors, judges, notaries public, police officers,
\narmy generals and officials with the Interior Ministry, as well as directors of
\nstate-owned companies. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As
\nregards foreign affairs, in 2015 Romania displayed solidarity with the other
\nmember countries, as the EU was faced
\nwith the biggest wave of refugees since the end of WWII. On the one hand,
\nBucharest accepted to host over 4,000 refugees from the Middle East and Africa.
\nOn the other hand, it pleaded for a solution to the situation to be found in
\nthe migrants’ countries of origin. In the meantime, after the Charlie Hebdo
\nattack in January in Paris and after the November attacks, also in Paris,
\nclaimed by the Islamic State terrorist organization, and whose victims included
\n2 Romanians as well, Romania joined the measures taken by the international
\ncommunity in order to prevent such atrocities from ever taking place again.
\nAlso worth mentioning is that on December 1 NATO activated its new
\nMultinational Division South-East headquarters in Bucharest. The launch of this
\nNATO command and control structure followed the activation, also in Bucharest,
\nin September, of a NATO Force Integration Unit. Later on, on December 18, the
\nAmerican missile defense shield in Deveselu, southern Romania, was officially
\ndeclared operational, after all its elements were finalized.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We cannot wrap up
\nthis retrospective of the developments in Romania in 2015 without mentioning
\nthe George Enescu International Classical Music Festival, which brought to
\nBucharest 7 of the world’s top-level orchestras, around 2,500 foreign artists
\nand 500 Romanian musicians. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sports lovers were not disappointed either. Romania’s
\nnational women’s handball team won bronze at the World Championship in Denmark.
\nAt the World Rugby Cup in England, Romania’s rugby squad scored a historic
\nvictory against Canada, 17-15, achieving the most spectacular reversal of
\nfortunes in the history of the World Cup. The Romanian tennis player Horia
\nTecau and his partner, the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer earned the top position in
\nthe ATP rankings, winning both the Wimbledon and the Champions’ Tournament.
\nAnd, Romania’s national football team secured a direct qualification to the
\nEURO 2016 in France, following an eight-year gap. On June 10, Romania will be
\nplaying its fixture against the host
\ncountry team. It will be for the first time ever when Romania opens a final
\ntournament. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A retrospective of the main domestic events in Romania in 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":46333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40944],"tags":[29434,28950,29483,29196,29507],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-124371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-week-in-review","tag-colectiv-fire","tag-corruption","tag-dacian-ciolos","tag-george-enescu-festival","tag-horia-tecau"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n