May 14, 2023
A roundup of local and international news
Newsroom, 14.05.2023, 13:55
Commemoration — The wounds caused by communism will never be fully healed, and our duty is to cultivate, every day, the respect for democratic values, as well as for the historical truth, and to educate the younger generations in this sense. This message was conveyed on Sunday by the Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă on the occasion of the National Remembrance Day of Martyrs of Communist Prisons. “75 years ago, on the night of May 14/15, 1948, the communist authorities launched a vast repressive operation, marking the beginning of a long series of horrors. For almost half a century, Romania was in the darkness of totalitarianism, all the strongholds of democracy being destroyed, one by one” the prime minister said in his message. According to him, all this ordeal ended in December 1989, through blood sacrifice, when Romanians won the fight for freedom and democracy.
Education – The draft laws of Education, of higher and pre-university education, will enter, as of Monday, the debate of the Senate in Bucharest, which is the decision-making body in this case. The changes brought in the Chamber of Deputies are supported by the parties in the governing coalition, which state that the new measures will reform the educational system. On the other hand, the opposition representatives believe that the problems in education will not be solved with the adoption of these laws. According to the calendar established by the leadership of the Senate, the specialized committee must give a report by May 19. Save Romania Union – USR requested an extension of the calendar, given that, they claim, a hasty adoption of documents of such complexity would harm education. The deputies substantially modified the two bills compared to the form adopted by the Government, hundreds of amendments being accepted. The laws might equally undergo changes in the Senate as well.
Museums — More than 300 cultural events took place as part of the European Night of the Museums 2023, which took place on Saturday in a joint edition between Romania and the Republic of Moldova (an ex-Soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking population). Of these, about 60 events took place in Bucharest in museums, art galleries, cultural and exhibition centers. The special guest of the Night of Museums 2023 was the world-wide phenomenon museum – War Childhood Museum, for the first time in Romania. The Romanian Athenaeum, the Football Museum and the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry participated in this initiative for the first time this year. The National Art Museum of Romania turned on its lights on Saturday, thus joining museums from dozens of European countries that opened their doors on the same night.
Forum — The Romanian Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, represented Romania, on Saturday, in the EU Ministerial Forum for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, organized in Stockholm by the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The forum included a series of simultaneous debates organized in the form of round tables dedicated to connectivity, energy and security. Bogdan Aurescu co-moderated the round table on security issues, entitled Joint management of security challenges in the Indo-Pacific. In his speech, the Romanian FM highlighted the interdependence relationship between the EU and the Indo-Pacific in terms of consolidating the prosperity of the two regions, the prospects for intensifying cooperation between the EU and the region, as well as the ways of jointly defining and combating security threats. According to the Romanian official, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has a major impact on global stability and prosperity, being not just a regional conflict, as it has effects at the world level. In this context, Bogdan Aurescu presented Romanias consistent and multidimensional efforts in support of Ukraine, as well as in support of the Ukrainian citizens affected by the war.
Elections – The first round of the presidential election is taking place in Turkey on Sunday. In power for over two decades, the current head of state, the Islamic-conservative Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is facing what the press calls “the toughest challenge of his career”. His secular opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is leading in opinion polls. He promised to restore democracy and improve Turkeys relations with the West. If none of the candidates gets more than 50% of the votes, a second round of voting will take place in two weeks’ time. (LS)
