An extremely agitated political year<\/strong> <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nRomanians who had expected a peaceful cohabitation between the President and
\nthe Government, saw their hopes shattered in 2018 as well. The war between the right-of-center
\nPresident Klaus Iohannis and the leftist government coalition formed by the
\nSocial Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and ran by
\nViorica Dancila since January 29th, reached a climax. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Even
\nif in 2018 Romania celebrated 100 years since the creation of the Romanian
\nunitary state, the two sides were unable to end hostilities. Supported by the
\nLiberals, president Iohannis, who in June had already announced his intention
\nto run for another presidential mandate, criticised almost the entire activity
\nof the Government and of the parliamentary majority all throughout the year, including
\nthe changes brought to the justice laws, the Criminal Code and the Code of
\nCriminal Procedure, the preparations for taking over the rotating presidency of
\nthe EU Council, the new salary law, the public pension law, the transfer of the
\nobligation to pay contributions to the welfare fund from employers to
\nemployees, the idea of relocating the Romanian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv
\nto Jerusalem and the budget adjustment. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Klaus
\nIohannis challenged at the Constitutional Court the unconstitutionality of a
\nrecord number of legislative changes and re-sent to Parliament for
\nreexamination a large number of laws. Moreover, he repeatedly asked for the
\nresignation of either Viorica Dancila, or of the entire Government, invoking
\ntheir lack of competence. In fact, the opposition parties – the National
\nLiberal Party, the Save Romania Union and the People’s Movement Party – filed
\ntwo no-confidence and several simple motions, all of which were rejected. In
\nNovember, President Iohannis accepted the government reshuffle proposed by the
\nPM, with the exception of the ministers of development and transport, and that
\nis why the Constitutional Court of Romania ruled that the president did not
\nfulfill his constitutional responsibilities when failing to acknowledge the
\nvacancies created by the resignation of the two ministers. <\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\nJustice, one of the main reasons for
\ndivision within Romanian society<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\neye of the political and social storm in Romania in 2018 was the justice
\nsystem. At the end of the year, Minister Tudorel Toader announced he would submit
\nto President Klaus Iohannis the request for the dismissal of Romania’s
\nProsecutor General Augustin Lazar. In February the same year, Tudorel Toader
\nhad called for the dismissal of the head of the National Anticorruption
\nDirectorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi. For months
\nin a row, Klaus Iohannis vehemently opposed the measure, but in July, forced by
\nthe Constitutional Court, he signed the decree for dismissal. He rejected, however,
\nthe appointment of Adina Florea for the office left vacant by Ms. Kovesi,
\ninvoking legal compliance conditions, and that is why the National Anticorruption
\nDirectorate is even today run by an interim head. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Seen
\nas the spearhead of the fight against corruption until Laura Codruta Kovesi’s dismissal,
\nin 2018 the Directorate sent fewer cases to court. The number of acquittals,
\nhowever, went up, corroborated with the fleeing abroad of high-ranking
\ndignitaries, who had received definitive sentences and whose extradition the
\nRomanian state did not manage to obtain. Other rulings of the Constitutional
\nCourt, including the one establishing the illegality of the 5-judge panels,
\naffected trials and sentences too, and many convictions previously received by
\nwell-known figures were suspended. The Social Democratic Party – PSD and the Alliance
\nof Liberals and Democrats – ALDE saw this as a victory against the so-called
\nillegitimate parallel state which, in their opinion, is trying to oust the
\nlawfully elected political power by using fabricated criminal cases created
\nalso with the help of some secret protocols signed with the intelligence
\nservices, whose existence was also revealed in 2018. MPs in the opposition and
\npart of the civil society say, on the other hand, that this is an obvious
\nattempt of the Social Democrats to take control of the judiciary, so that some
\nof them, starting with their leader Liviu Dragnea, would not be brought to
\njustice. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
One
\nof the biggest street protests against PSD and against the Government was
\ndefinitely the one held on August 10 in Bucharest, when gendarmes used teargas
\nand water canons against protesters. Military prosecutors opened an
\ninvestigation into the matter after hundreds of protesters filed complaints
\nagainst the gendarmes. The latter said they only did their job, in keeping with
\nthe law. In Brussels, the European Commission and Parliament warned the ruling
\ncoalition that the independence of justice, the observance of the rule of law
\nand the fight against corruption regressed in the past year. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A good year for Romanian
\nagriculture<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In
\n2018 Romanian agriculture reported extraordinary results, as it ranked first in
\nEurope in terms of corn and sunflower production, while its cereal crop,
\ntotaling 31 million tons, put the country third in Europe after France and
\nGermany. Authorities say that subsidies paid on time, the technology used by
\nfarmers, the extension of irrigated areas and the anti-hail protection led to
\nthis result, in spite of difficult weather conditions. Also, agriculture and
\nrural development drew European funds, being the sectors with the highest
\nabsorption rate at national level. These exceptional results were overshadowed,
\nhowever, by the African swine fever, the most serious animal disease Romania
\nhas been faced with after WWII. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Also in 2018…<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nretrospective of 2018 in Romania is not complete without mentioning that the
\nmain international financial bodies, such as the IMF, the World Bank, the
\nEuropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Commission as
\nwell as the main rating agencies issued moderate forecasts regarding Romania’s
\neconomic growth, the biggest in the EU so far, and warned of the risk of a
\nhigher budget deficit. Also in 2018, in the month of October, around 21% of the
\ncitizens with the right to vote, that is 3.9 million people, took part in a
\nreferendum on the revision of Romania’s Constitution, in the sense of
\nredefining family as a freely consented marriage between a man and a woman and
\nnot between spouses, as it is at present. 91.5% of the participants in the
\nreferendum voted in favor, but the voter turnout was below the 30% threshold
\nneeded for the referendum to be valid.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Also
\nin 2018 Romania said good bye to some outstanding personalities, such as Doina
\nCornea, a symbol of the anti-communist resistance, film director Lucian
\nPintilie, historian Neagu Djuvara, sports journalist Cristian Topescu and
\nfootball player Ilie Balaci.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A look at the most important events of the year in Romania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":124454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40944],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-124631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-week-in-review"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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