November 20, 2014 UPDATE

A look at some of the main stories today in Romania

România Internațional, 20.11.2014, 19:39

Russia expressed hope on Thursday that with the installation of the new president elect, Klaus Iohannis, bilateral relations between the two countries will see a major change. Previously, Romania’s current president Traian Basescu used harsh language to criticise Crimea’s annexation by Russia and the latter’s involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Among others, president Basescu accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of seeking to transform the Black Sea into a Russian lake.

Klaus Iohannis, the candidate of the Christian Liberal Alliance in opposition and the mayor of the central city of Sibiu, obtained 54.43% of the votes in Sunday’s presidential runoff, while his rival, Victor Ponta, who ran on behalf of the ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party won 45.56% of the votes, according to the final results made public on Thursday by the Central Election Bureau. Voter turnout stood at 64.10%, while almost 380,000 people voted abroad. The new president Klaus Iohannis will be officially instated after December 21st, when the term of the current president Traian Basescu comes to an end.

Romania’s prosecutor general Tiberiu Nitu on Thursday announced the start of an investigation into the organisation of the presidential elections abroad and into possible cases of voter suppression. Thousands of Romanian citizens living abroad were unable to exercise their voting rights in the two rounds of the presidential elections, on the 2nd and 16th of November. In Paris and Turin, the police used tear gas to disperse voters angry at not being able to cast their votes.

12 former heads of state and government from Central and Eastern Europe are in Bucharest to attend a conference on the 25th anniversary of the collapse of communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe which is taking place in Bucharest on Thursday and Friday. The guests include Lech Walesa, the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995, Leonid Kuchma, the president of Ukraine between 1994 and 1999, Hans Gert Pottering, the president of the European Parliament between 2007 and 2009, as well as Emil Constantinescu, Romania’s president between 1996 and 2000.

Romania’s Supreme Court in Bucharest on Thursday approved prosecutors’ request concerning the 30-day temporary arrest of the Social Democrat MP Ioan Adam. He is involved in a case of illegal return of land which cost the state over 300 million euros. Also on Thursday, the Court rejected the request for the temporary arrest of Conservative MP Ion Dinita, accused of illegally benefiting from public contracts that cost the state over 7 million euros. This week, Parliament also voted in favour of lifting the immunity of two other MPs, the former Social Democrat education minister Ecaterina Andronescu and the former government secretary Serban Mihailescu. Along with nine former cabinet members, they are suspected of corruption in the Microsoft case involving the preferential award of IT licences.

A three-party meeting between the presidents of Moldova, Ukraine and Poland was held on Thursday in Chisinau. The Polish president, Bronislaw Komorowski said his country would continue to support the European path of Kiev and Chisinau despite the complicated situation in the region. Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko said that given the complicated regional situation, European integration is his country’s only option. According to commentators, the visit to Chisinau by the Polish and Ukrainian presidents ahead of the parliamentary elections on the 30th of November shows support for Moldova’s European future.

Bucharest plays host to the Gaudeamus International Book Fair organised by Radio Romania. Visitors can choose from among 750 different events, a record number in the history of the fair. 300 Romanian and foreign publishers, printing houses, institutions in the field of education and cultural centres are attending this 21st edition of the fair. The guest of honour this year is Russia. On its first day on Wednesday, the fair had 10,000 visitors.