September 20, 2014 UPDATE
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România Internațional, 20.09.2014, 19:14
The Social Democrat Victor Ponta, Prime Minister of Romania, Saturday launched his presidential candidacy. The event took place on the National Arena in Bucharest, and was attended by some 70 thousand members and supporters of the ruling alliance, which includes the Social Democratic Party, the Conservatives and the National Union for the Progress of Romania. Victor Ponta, 42, says he wants the 25-year long transition from dictatorship to democracy to be completed and Romania to become a truly respected member of the EU. C.V. Tudor, president of Greater Romania Party, also announced his candidacy on Saturday, and so did the Liberal leader Klaus Iohannis, the presidential candidate of the Christian Liberal Alliance. Iohannis is PM Victor Ponta’s main challenger. The election campaign starts on October the 3rd, with the first election round scheduled for November the 2nd and the runoff for November the 16th.
Finland’s Radio Symphonic Orchestra performs for the first time in Romania, on the opening night of the 2nd RadiRo Festival of Radio Orchestras, organised by Radio Romania and scheduled to end on September the 27th. This is the only European music event to bring together radio symphonic orchestras from around the continent. Apart from the Finnish orchestra, taking part in the Festival are celebrated orchestras, soloists and conductors from the Czech Republic, Germany, France and Romania. The programme will focus on the works of German composer Richard Strauss, whose 150th anniversary is celebrated this year.
This weekend Bucharest celebrates 555 years since it was first mentioned in an official document, issued by Wallachian ruler Vlad the Impaler in 1459. On this occasion, Romania’s capital city hosts open-air concerts, parties, theatre shows, parades, fairs and exhibitions. Bucharest has been the capital of Romania since 1862.
High NATO officials had a meeting in Vilnius in a forum focusing on regional stability and the relation with Russia, hours after a ceasefire was signed in Minsk between Kiev and the pro-Russian separatists. The parties have agreed to set up a 30-km buffer zone. Meanwhile, a third Russian humanitarian convoy has reached Donetsk, in Ukraine’s rebel-controlled east, where hundreds of thousand civilians in eastern Ukraine are struggling with severe shortages of basic foodstuffs, water and electricity, because of the clashes between the Ukrainian troops and the pro-Russian secessionists.
