January 23, 2015 UPDATE
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Mihai Pelin, 23.01.2015, 14:30
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis received the Central Bank governor Mugur Isarescu on Friday in Bucharest for talks on the latest developments on the international currency market. High on the agenda were the appreciation of the Swiss franc as well as the pundits’ opinions on the issue. On Friday, the single currency went down against the US dollar and the Swiss franc, which saw record highs in Romania, where a franc was traded for 4.58 and a dollar for 3.99 RON. We recall that 75 thousand Romanians have taken credits in Swiss francs.
The Liberal Democratic Party in the Republic of Moldova (PLDM) and the Democratic Party (PD) in that country on Friday agreed to forge a governing alliance without the Liberals. The announcement has been made by Vlad Filat, leader of the Liberal-Democrats and Marian Lupu, president of the Democratic Party. The government will be a minority one as the two parties jointly hold 42 seats out of a total 101. Communist leader, Vladimir Voronin announced that his party would endorse the minority government made up of the PLDM and PD. Last year Chisinau concluded association and free-trade agreements with the European Union, which it hopes to join in 2020.
Events celebrating 156 years since the union of the Romanian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were being held on Friday all across the country. On the 24th of January, 1859, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, elected a week earlier ruler of Moldavia, was unanimously elected by the Elective Assembly in Bucharest sovereign of Wallachia and proclaimed ruler of the United Principalities. Cuza’s reforms laid the institutional foundation of modern Romania. In 1918, the establishment of the national state was completed by the union with the Kingdom of Romania of the historical provinces with a predominantly Romanian speaking population, which until then had been under the rule of the neighboring empires.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has invited representatives of all political parties represented in Parliament to join him for consultations on the legislative priorities of the next parliament session on Wednesday, January 28th. The agenda of talks will include topics such as a better organization of voting abroad, the funding of election campaigns and political parties and means of accelerating the procedure on lifting parliamentary immunity. This is the president’s second round of consultations with the parties represented in Parliament since he took over the presidential office on December 21st. On January 12th Iohannis got consensus for a political agreement aimed at ensuring in 2017 a minimum 2% of the GDP threshold for the National Defense Ministry.
The High Court of Cassation and Justice in Romania on Friday was hosting the first hearings in the famous case of illegal returns of property, in which 17 people are under trial. Among them there are three influential politicians, the resigning senator Viorel Hrebenciuc and parliamentarians Ioan Adam and Tudor Chiuariu, and also several magistrates. The 17 are accused by the anti-corruption prosecutors that in 2013 they got involved in the illegal return of dozens of thousands of hectares of forest. The damage is estimated at some 300 million Euros.
