December 18, 2019
A roundup of domestic and international news.
Newsroom, 18.12.2019, 13:55
GOVERNMENT — Romanian PM Ludovic Orban has officially announced that the Bucharest Government will take responsibility in Parliament for the budget law and social securities law for 2020. Next year’s draft national budget and social security budget have been published on the finance ministry’s website for debate. The national budget is built on a 4.1% economic growth rate, a budget deficit of 3.59% and an average inflation rate of 3.1%. Nine ministries will receive more money, among which labor, defense, home affairs while smaller amounts will be allocated to healthcare and regional development. President Klaus Iohannis, who chaired the Higher Defense Council meeting on Tuesday, where the budgets of the military institutions were decided on, said he is satisfied with the draft law. The government’s goal is to adopt the national budget law by the end of the year.
COMMEMORATION — Events marking 30 years since the anti-communist revolution continue today in the city of Timisoara, in western Romania. On December 18, 1989, protesters were shot on the stairs of the Orthodox Cathedral, while 43 corpses were stolen from the morgue of the county hospital and taken by the Securitate, the former political police, to the crematory in Bucharest, in an attempt to hide the truth. Tuesday it was a day of mourning in Timisoara, in memory of the victims.
MINORITIES — By promoting policies based on respect, mutual observance of rights and values, dialogue and democratic representation at political and institutional level, Romania has become one of the most appreciated models of minority rights protection, Pm Ludovic Orban has said on Wednesday, on the occasion of the National Minorities Day. “The Romanian society has evolved in the last 30 years from multiculturalism to interculturalism, by proving that diversity does not mean division, but a plus for all,” Orban has also said. As many as 18 ethnic minorities live in Romania at present. In Romania’s Parliament, 17 minorities have one MP while the Democratic Union of Ethnic Minorities in Romania, UDMR, holds 21 MP seats and 1 senator seat.
PROTESTS — More than 6 thousand clerks are protesting today in front of tribunals and prosecutors’ offices against the adoption of a law that repeals special pensions. The activity of Courts is blocked. The Labor Committee in the Chamber of Deputies green lighted on Tuesday a draft law removing special pensions for all professional categories with the exception of military and policemen. The project is being submitted to the Chamber of Deputies’ vote today.
FOOTBALL – At the Romanian Football Awards, Razvan Lucescu has been designated coach of the year for having won the championship and cup of Greece with PAOK Thessaloniki and the Asian Champions League with the Saudi side Al-Hilal. From the beginning of his career Lucescu proved to be one of the best Romanian technicians. At only 37, in 2006 he coached Rapid Bucharest to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup after beating teams like Feyenoord Rotterdam, Shaktar Donetsk, Hertha Berlin and SV Hamburg. Rapid failed to qualify for the semifinals after two draws against Steaua Bucharest. Between 2009 and 2011 Lucescu coached Romania’s national eleven. (Translated by Elena Enache)
