President Klaus Iohannis calls referendum on fight against corruption./ Bucharest to host international conference on role played by majority and opposition in democratic society./ Romanian film producer Ada Solomon enters Oscar race.
Union of Romanian Principalities. Romania and Romanian communities abroad on Tuesday celebrated the 158th anniversary of the Union of the Romanian Principalities. On the 24th of January 1859, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, who, one week earlier, had been elected ruler of Moldavia, was also unanimously elected by the Elective Assembly of Bucharest ruler of Wallachia and thus proclaimed ruler of the United Principalities. This represented the de facto union of the two countries inhabited by Romanians. Three years later, on the 24th of January 1862, this union was recognised internationally and the new state was named Romania. The reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1859-1866) laid the institutional foundations of modern Romania through a series of radical reforms. In 1918, the process for the creation of a Romanian nation state ended with the union with the Kingdom of Romania of the historical provinces with a majority Romanian population that had until then been controlled by neighbouring multinational empires. After World War Two, however, Romania lost the provinces of Bessarabia and Bukovina.
Referendum. President Klaus Iohannis has called a referendum in which citizens will be able to express their views with regard to the continuation of the fight against corruption and ensuring the integrity of public office. On Monday night, the president said the government's intention to pass two emergency ordinances granting collective pardon and amending the criminal code was never discussed during the election campaign for the parliamentary elections on the 11th of December, but that the Romanian people have a right to express their views on the subject. The Social Democratic Party, the senior partner in the ruling coalition, says the president's move is politically motivated and an attempt to win back popular support after the opposition lost the elections. The National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union, in opposition, said they supported the president's move. Last Sunday, Klaus Iohannis took part in a massive protest held in Bucharest against the government's proposals. Rallies were also held in other cities across Romania. Justice minister Florin Iordache says the changes proposed are needed in order to ease overcrowding in prisons and harmonise the legislation with some Constitutional Court rulings.
Strasbourg visit. Romania's president said an international conference would be held in Bucharest on the 6th of April to discuss the role played by the majority and the opposition in a genuinely democratic society. The conference will be attended by the Council of Europe secretary general Thorbjorn Jagland, who had talks with the Romanian president on Tuesday in Strasbourg. The two officials voiced their concern about the difficult political environment in Europe, which has seen a rise in extremism, populism, xenophobia, intolerance and nationalism and attempts to act against fundamental democratic values. "We agreed that it is essential to act firmly, including by using the Council of Europe's instruments, to combat these phenomena", said Klaus Iohannis. The Romanian president also presented the achievements of Romania's current presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Earlier, at a ceremony to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, he said it is everyone's permanent duty to recognise the mistakes of the past and honour the memory of innocent victims. He expressed his conviction that the Alliance together with the Council of Europe can create a pilot programme to train public workers with respect to combating Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism. On Wednesday, the Romanian president will address the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.
EU. The
minister delegate for European Affairs in the Romanian Foreign Ministry Ana
Birchall, who attended an informal meeting of her EU counterparts in Malta,
said she supported going ahead with major dossiers such as migration, the
consolidation of the Union's internal security and its neighbourhood and
enlargement policy. Romania will continue to contribute actively to the
discussions about the future of the European Union and stand by the member
states supporting European integration, writes a foreign ministry press
release.
Oscars 2017. Ada Solomon is the first Romanian film producer to be in the race for an Oscar for best foreign language film with the production Toni Erdmann directed by Maren Ade, Hi Film Productions said in a press release on Tuesday. The film, which was almost entirely shot in Romania, is the only title from 2016 to be included by BBC Culture among the 100 greatest films of the 21st century. "I find it extraordinary that more than 700,000 viewers in Germany and more than 500,000 in France had a chance, through this film, to become familiar with a whole series of Romanian actors and a key character of the story: the city of Bucharest, an extremely powerful presence in the film and from an entirely different perspective than we have been accustomed to see on the big screen so far", said producer Ada Solomon. Toni Erdman was first presented at the Cannes Film Festival last year, where it won the FIPRESCI international film critics' award. The film is about Winfried, an eccentric father and practical joker now retired who makes a surprise visit to his daughter, Ines, a corporate career woman posted in Bucharest. (Trans.: C. Mateescu)
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