October 20, 2024
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 20.10.2024, 13:55
MOLDOVA VOTES Moldovans are going to the polls today to cast their ballot for the president and to decide in a referendum the European future of this small, ex-soviet, Romanian-speaking country. The incumbent president, the pro-European Maia Sandu stands most chances to a second mandate and according to the polls, more than half of the respondents are voting in favour of the country’s joining the EU. However, it seems that detaching from Moscow’s sphere of influence is as difficult as gaining independence from the Soviet Union, which the country did more than three decades ago. The authorities in Chisinau have taken measures to prevent any internal and external provocations as well as any hostile actions, including from the pro-Russian, breakaway region of Transdniester. Over 22 hundred polling stations have been set up in the Republic of Moldova and over 230 for the Moldovans abroad, including 16 in the neighboring Romania.
DAY According to Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the day of October 20th is a historic one for the neighboring ex-soviet, Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova. “I am convinced that at the end of it, the Republic of Moldova will be one step closer to the European Union – where we can build the future together”, Ciolacu wrote on Facebook on Sunday. Numerous political leaders in Romania, both from the opposition and the ruling coalition, have urged the Moldovan citizens to say ‘Yes’ at the referendum concerning the European integration. According to the Moldovan ambassador in Bucharest, Victor Chirila, there are 100 thousand Moldovan citizens in Romania, out of whom 20 thousand are students.
FESTIVAL Bucharest is presently seeing the 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival, unfolding this year under a suggestive motto, “Dramaturgy of the Possible”. Until October 28th, theatre goers are offered the opportunity of watching a series of performances, a selection which, according to organizers, is aimed at expressing various possible scenarios. The edition’s official selection includes over 30 performances mounted by theatre troupes from all over the country. Among these there is the Anthology of Disappearance by Radu Afrim, William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, directed by Andrei Serban, and Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. This year’s edition has also brought together theatre troupes from abroad, from Germany, Ireland, Poland and Belgium. The event has been produced by the Theaters Union in Romania, UNITER.
TENNIS Romania’s table tennis player Bernadette Szocs has ensured medals in the singles and doubles contests of the European Table Tennis Championships underway in Linz, Austria. In the semis, Szocs will be up against Maria Xiao of Spain, after a win against Charlotte Lutz of France. In the doubles contest, Szocs and Sofia Polcanova of Austria will be up against the Czechoslovakian pair Hana Matelova/Barbora Balazova.
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