September 25, 2017 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 25.09.2017, 19:52
MESSAGE Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Monday conveyed a message of congratulations to German chancellor Angela Merkel upon the victory of the Christian Democratic Union in the Parliamentary election in that country. Iohannis has assured the German official that Romania is a stable and trustworthy partner for Germany, a promoter of the efforts of strengthening the European project. At the same time, president Iohannis has expressed the conviction that the two countries will continue their cooperation at the European level, including in the talks on Europe’s future as well as in the upcoming Romania’s taking over the EU Council’s presidency in the first semester of 2019. The Conservatives of Chancellor Merkel, CDU, and their Bavarian branch, CSU, emerged as winners of the federal parliamentary election on Sunday with 33% of the votes. The Christian-Democrats are followed by their former coalition partners, the Social-Democrats with 20% of the votes and the hard-right Alternative for Germany, that for the first time since WWII has obtained 12.6 %, which wins them Bundestag seats.
SUPPORT The Social Democratic Party, the main party in the present ruling coalition in Romania, on Monday decided to back Rovana Plumb, the one who manages the European Funds and Sevil Shhaideh, deputy Prime Minister and Development Minister. The two are facing graft charges in the so-called Belina file. Romania’s Anti-corruption Chief Prosecutor, Laura Codruta Kovesi has called for Parliament approval to commence penal prosecution in the case of MP Rovana Plumb who is facing charges of abuse of office during the time she was Minister of the Environment. Shhaideh has been accused that in 2013 while state secretary at the Ministry of Regional Development would have allowed the Danube island of Belina and a Danube’s channel to go under the administration of the Teleorman County Council, an institution which further leased them to a company. The opposition has called for the resignation of the two ministers as they may affect Romania’s image abroad as well as the government’s credibility. In a television interview, PSD leader Liviu Dragnea has described the Anti-corruption Directorate’s latest move as a fiction and an attack against the government adding that the stake of this file would be the party he leads and even himself.
TENNIS The world’s second best tennis player, Romanian Simona Halep, who has directly qualified for the second round of the Wuhan tennis tournament in China, will be playing Russian Daria Kasatkina. Also in the second round, another Romanian, Sorana Cirstea will be up against Qiang Wang of China. The third tennis player that represented Romania in the tournament, Monica Niculescu, conceded a two-sets defeat to Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands on Monday.
