March 22, 2025 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 22.03.2025, 19:23
VOTE The first positions on ballots for the first round of the presidential election on May 4th in Romania will be occupied by George Simion, leader of the AUR party from the nationalist opposition, the former liberal chief, Crin Antonescu, backed by the ruling coalition PSD-PNL-UDMR, and the opposition USR leader, Elena Lasconi. The order was established by lots drawn at the Central Electoral Bureau on Saturday. The list continues with Cristian Terhes, Lavinia Sandru, the country’s former Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, Sebastian Constantin Popescu, Silviu Predoiu, John Ion Banu Muscel, the former minister, Daniel Funeriu, and the Bucharest’s mayor, Nicusor Dan. The election campaign will kick off on April 4th.
MAE The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest (MAE) has recommended the Romanian citizens travelling to or transiting Turkyie that they may carefully check the routes, as protests are underway in capital Ankara, in Istanbul, Izmir and other major cities. The Romanian citizens are advised to comply with the recommendations of the local authorities and avoid crowded areas, such as major streets and boulevards, university campuses, party headquarters as well as local and public institutions.
FOOTBALL Romania’s national football side on Saturday night left for San Marino where they are to play the local representative on Monday in a game counting towards Group H of the World Cup 2026 preliminaries. On Friday, the Romanians conceded a one-nil defeat to Bosnia in Bucharest. The Group also includes Austria and Cyprus.
ARREST Bogdan Peschir, the man believed to be the main funder of the online campaign of the ultra-nationalist candidate, Calin Georgescu, has been placed in preventive detention. According to prosecutors, Peschir would have paid over 800 thousand Euros on Tiktok to influence voters and he would have allegedly transferred significant sums of money to hundreds of people in an attempt to convince them to vote for Calin Georgescu in the presidential election last year. The ruling is not definitive and Peschir’s lawyers said they would challenge it. According to the lawyers, Peschir wasn’t involved in the election campaign but he had a business interest to make it first to level 50, the highest donation level on TikTok. Prosecutors and policemen have conducted a series of searches in several counties and in Bucharest, involving a couple of famous influencers on social networks, such as the one known as Makaveli, adviser of a senator from the opposition ultranationalist party, SOS Romania, and other people who are allegedly part of an organized crime group.
TALKS Ukraine hopes to reach a partial truce with Russia, which may prevent further attacks against the energy sector as well as against other infrastructures and ships in the Black Sea, during the talks brokered by the USA in Saudi Arabia, according to statements by Ukrainian officials, including by president Zelenskyy, AFP reports. He announced that a Ukrainian delegation will be meeting American officials in Saudi Arabia on Monday. A Russian-American meeting is also going to take place in the same place on the same day, but no Russian-Ukrainian contacts have been scheduled, as their delegations are to be in separate rooms. The Ukrainian President says that his Defence Minister, Rustem Umerov, will be attending together with a group of non-political experts a new round of talks with the US delegation. Zelenskyy has confirmed the meeting in Saudi Arabia will be of a technical nature and its goal is to set the details of a partial ceasefire with Russia, a ceasefire, which from Ukraine’s point of view should include not only energy infrastructures but also other civilian infrastructures.
ID About five million electronic ID cards are to be issued by Romanian authorities until June 2026, the Interior Ministry in Bucharest says. According to the aforementioned institution, the first issue will be made with European funds. The Romanian authorities have made an ample presentation of the new documents they have already started issuing first in Cluj, north-western Romania, and then in the entire territory. The new documents are smaller, having the dimension of a bank card with advanced security elements to prevent forgery and theft and may offer easy access to electronic services. The first Integrated IT System for issuing ID cards has also been implemented with European funding.
(bill)
