October 13, 2014 UPDATE
A look at some of the top stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 13.10.2014, 12:15
Almost 53% of Romanians say they are interested and very interested in the election campaign, and almost 70% know already who they will vote for on November 2nd. This information comes from an Inscop Research poll run early this month. The most popular candidates are prime minister Victor Ponta, the leader of the ruling coalition, the Sibiu mayor Klaus Iohannis, from the Christian Liberal Alliance, in opposition, Elena Udrea, representing the pro-presidential People’s Movement Party, and the senate speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu, running as an independent. 46.5% of the people polled said they knew the platforms of the main candidates. This study was run by the daily Adevarul, using a sample of 1095 and a maximum margin of error of plus-minus 3%.
The Chamber of Deputies in Romania agreed to lift the parliamentary immunity of the independent MP Valerian Vreme to allow the start of criminal procedures against him. A former minister of communications and information society between September 2010 and February 2012, he is accused by the prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Directorate of abuse of office in the Microsoft case related to the preferential granting of IT licences. Nine former ministers from different parties and governments, both left and centre-right, are suspected of peddling in influence, bribe giving and taking, money laundering and abuse of office in this case.
Romania’s national football side on Tuesday meet Finland away in a Group F game as part of the preliminary games for the 2016 European Football Championship. This is Romania’s third game, after a win against Greece in September 1-nil and a 1-all draw against Hungary on Saturday in Bucharest. Northern Ireland top the group with 6 points, followed by Finland and Romania with 4 points each, Hungary and Greece with 1 point each, and the Faeroe Islands with no points. Romania last qualified for a final tournament in 2008, at the European Championship.
