October 18, 2026

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 18.10.2026, 13:55

PROTESTS – French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said that 1,200 people had been arrested after large-scale protests over declining public services and the cost of living turned violent in several parts of the country on Saturday. Lecornu said 150 police officers had been injured in clashes with demonstrators. Officially authorised marches were accompanied by groups of violent individuals who gathered in areas where demonstrations were banned in an attempt to provoke incidents. For those protesting across France, including in Paris, the demonstrations brought together a range of grievances. The protests began with students and were joined by civil servants, trade unions, left-wing political groups and members of the so-called Yellow Vest movement, who protested against the cost of living ten years ago, during President Macron’s first term, news agencies report. Several European countries were also affected by protests on Saturday over the deterioration of social services and living standards. In Portugal, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Lisbon, mainly to protest against rents doubling between 2017 and the present day. In Italy, clashes broke out between demonstrators and security forces in Milan and Bologna. Similar incidents occurred in Albania, where police fired rubber bullets at protesters who have been taking to the streets for several days to protest against corruption and Prime Minister Edi Rama.

NATIONAL BUDGET – Romania’s 2027 budget must be built on realistic revenues, clear priorities and spending the state can afford, says interim Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare, who has been included in the cabinet proposed by Luca Niculescu. However, achieving this objective, which will fall to the future government, depends on striking a balance between available resources and meeting social demands, such as the indexation of pensions. Alexandru Nazare added that Romania had not yet reached a stage of economic recovery free from constraints, and that maintaining budgetary discipline was essential to avoid further imbalances. In his view, there were favourable conditions, given that the budget deficit for the first nine months of this year stood at just 3.82% of GDP, 1.5% lower than in the same period in 2025. Meanwhile, public administration debt continued to rise, reaching 1,205 billion lei (around 225 billion euros) in July. As a percentage of GDP, government debt has now edged above 60%, according to the National Institute of Statistics. Social pressure over issues such as pension indexation is nevertheless evident. Although annual indexation is required by law, it has been suspended over the past two years. The average pension in Romania does not exceed 3,000 lei (around 560 euros), while more than two million pensioners receive less than 2,500 lei.

GOVERNMENT – In Bucharest, parliamentary committee hearings begin on Monday for the ministers proposed to join the team of prime minister-designate Luca Niculescu, ahead of the investiture vote scheduled to take place in plenary session on Tuesday afternoon. To be approved, the new government, made up of Social Democrats and independents, needs at least 233 votes in favour. Parliamentary support is expected to come from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), the national minorities and the United for Romania group. On Saturday, National Liberal Party (PNL) leader Ilie Bolojan announced that his party, which will move into opposition, would support the new government through a “conditional and case-by-case vote of necessity”, after signing an agreement with the prime minister-designate on Monday. The Save Romania Union (USR) and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), meanwhile, will vote against the government. Luca Niculescu is the fourth nominee put forward by President Nicuşor Dan for the post of prime minister, following Parliament’s dismissal, through a motion of no confidence on 5 May, of the minority government formed by the PNL, USR and UDMR and led by Liberal Ilie Bolojan, who has been serving as caretaker prime minister ever since.

ALERT – Lithuania asked residents to take shelter for around an hour this morning because of an unidentified flying object, the military and the National Crisis Management Centre said. During a red air alert, fighter jets serving with NATO’s air policing mission were scrambled and sent to the area, while Kaunas Airport, near Lithuania’s second-largest city, was closed, the centre said. Earlier, the Polish military said it was investigating a possible violation of the country’s airspace by an unidentified object. Latvia, Lithuania’s northern neighbour, also issued and subsequently lifted a yellow air alert in some areas along its border with Lithuania. Ukrainian drones have repeatedly entered NATO airspace in the Baltic region in recent months. Kyiv has said they deviated from their intended flight paths because of Russian electronic jamming. The situation has heightened fears that Russia’s war against Ukraine could spread beyond NATO’s borders. On Saturday, Romanian F-16 fighter jets shot down two drones over the country’s territorial waters, days after two chemical product tankers were hit by drones near Romania’s Black Sea coast. These are the latest in a series of attacks highlighting the risks to commercial shipping on NATO’s eastern flank. Most of these incidents have taken place outside NATO members’ territorial waters. In the Republic of Moldova, on Romania’s north-eastern border, the authorities announced that another drone had crashed in a district in the north of the country, near the border with Ukraine.

WEATHER – Predominantly overcast and cold weather is forecast today in northern, central, eastern and south-eastern Romania, where cloud cover will persist. Elsewhere, skies will be partly cloudy, with temperatures close to seasonal averages. There will be occasional rain in the eastern half of the country. In high mountain areas, particularly in the eastern Southern Carpathians, above 1,900 metres, precipitation will also fall as sleet and snow, with a fresh snow layer of more than 5 cm expected to accumulate. Over the past few hours, snowfall has continued to cause problems on the Transfăgărăşan mountain road, where a substantial layer of snow has built up. Snow has also fallen on Romania’s other high-altitude road, the Transalpina. In some mountain areas, the snow depth has reached 37 cm. Meteorologists say further snowfall is expected at high altitudes, but temperatures across the country will begin to rise from Tuesday. On Wednesday, temperatures in western and south-western Romania will reach 24 degrees Celsius. Today, maximum temperatures will range from 10 to 21 degrees Celsius. In Bucharest, temperatures will rise compared with the previous day, with a maximum of 17 to 18 degrees Celsius. (EE)