November 17, 2014 UPDATE
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România Internațional, 17.11.2014, 20:00
Klaus Iohannis, the candidate of the opposition alliance in Romania, the right-of-centre Christian Liberal Alliance, won the presidential runoff held on Sunday. According to the Central Electoral Bureau, after centralising the data from 99.07% of the polling stations, Iohannis, the mayor of the central Romanian city of Sibiu, won 54.50% of the votes, as against 45.49% for his challenger, the Social Democratic PM Victor Ponta, supported by the ruling alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservatives. The voter turnout was nearly 64%, the highest in 18 years. Ponta said on Monday that he would stay as PM as long as he is backed by the current ruling coalition, and that he would work well with the new president. He added that these elections proved that Romania needed new legislation and logistics for the voting process in the diaspora. Ponta announced that the Social Democratic Party and its allies would vote in Parliament on Tuesday against a proposed amnesty and pardon law and would approve the lifting of immunity for the MPs who are under criminal investigation. This piece of legislation was a topic of dispute during the election campaign and its endorsement was once again requested by Klaus Iohannis on Monday.
The Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Meleşcanu Monday apologised to the Romanian citizens who were unable to vote abroad, but added that the Ministry had taken all the measures to ensure the “fairness, lawfulness and neutrality” of the voting process. Melescanu pointed out that in the runoff on Sunday, more than 379 thousand Romanian citizens living abroad cast their votes, which is an absolute record since 1990. The largest number of voters was reported in Italy, 96 thousand, and Spain, 83 thousand, the countries hosting the largest Romanian communities. Next came the Republic of Moldova with over 35 thousand, and the UK with nearly 26 thousand. Substantial turnout figures, above 15 thousand, were also reported in the US, Germany and France. Thousands of Romanians queued in front of polling stations in many European cities, and some of them were unable to cast their votes, which led to incidents. In Turin and Paris security forces resorted to tear gas to disperse the protesters. In solidarity with the diaspora, thousands of Romanians protested in Bucharest and other cities in the country.
The incumbent president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, Monday congratulated Klaus Iohannis on his election as president of Romania. Rompuy voiced his confidence that Iohannis would do his best to help Romania cope with the coming political, economic and social challenges, and contribute to the further development of the EU. In turn, the president of the Republic of Moldova, Nicolae Timofti, congratulated the president-elect Klaus Iohannis and invited him to make a visit to Chisinau in the near future. Timofti expressed his trust that the friendship and good neighbourhood relations that have significantly strengthened over the past few years would continue to grow. He added he was confident that during the term in office of Klaus Iohannis, Romania will make progress in strengthening the rule of law, and will grow stronger and more prosperous.
The Romanian Defence Minister, Mircea Dusa, Monday discussed in Bucharest with Rose Gottemoeller, the US under-secretary of state for arms control and international security. The topics approached included the Strategic Partnership, the missile defence system, the progress in making the military base in Deveselu operational. Dusa said, among others, that the Romanian party would like the role of the military base in southern Romania enlarged and strengthened, given the current security context. The talks also approached the security situation at the eastern border of NATO and its influence on the region, as well as Romania’s contribution to NATO’s planned mission in Afghanistan. Rose Gottemoeller is on a two-day visit to Romania, the second stage, after Jordan, of a tour that the US official is making between November the 14th and 26th, and which also includes India, Russia and the UK.
The EU Monday decided to add new names on the list of people subject to sanctions for their involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. The European foreign ministers, convening in Brussels on Monday, called on the Union’s diplomatic service to expand the list of sanctions against the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, so that a decision may be made by the end of the month. At present, 119 people, separatists and Russian officials, are now subject to European sanctions, including a freeze on assets and travel bans. At the meeting in Brussels, Romania was represented by the Secretary of State for European Affairs, George Ciamba.
