26 December 2016, UPDATE

Romanias president Klaus Iohannis to make public the name of the prime minister designate after Christmas.

Newsroom, 26.12.2016, 18:31

Christmas. On the second day of
Christmas, Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Christians celebrate the Synaxis of the Most Holy Mother of God, one of the oldest holidays
dedicated to the Virgin Mary, dating back to the 5th century. The
synaxis is an assembly generally held after a big holiday and is dedicated to a
saint who is considered God’s instrument in the fulfilment of his plan. The
Virgin Mary is the protector of all believers and of the Christian family.

Prime minister designate.
Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will make public the name of the prime
minister designate after Christmas. He held consultations on this subject
before the holidays with the political parties in the new Parliament formed
after the elections on the 11th of December. The coalition between
the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, which
holds 54 of the seats in Parliament and which also enjoys the support of the
Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, has proposed former Social
Democrat minister for development Sevil Shhaideh for the position of
prime minister. From among the right-wing parties, only the People’s Movement
Party led by the former president Traian Basescu has made a nomination for
prime minister, namely Eugen Tomac. The National Liberal Party and the Save
Romania Union said they would be in opposition and would not support a
government formed around the Social Democratic Party.

Republic of Moldova. Igor Dodon, the new president of the
Republic of Moldova, an ex-Soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking
population, presented his team of 10 advisors, one of whom will be responsible
for the relations with the diaspora. The new leader in Chisinau has decided
that the phrase European integration be eliminated from the title of the
advisor for foreign policy and European integration. One of the first actions
of the new administration was to change the name of the state language on the
president office’s website from Romanian to Moldovan and to remove the flag of
the European Union from the presidential residence. During his election
campaign, Dodon said one of his priorities would include a ban on organisations
militating for the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania, while his
inaugural address promoted the idea of a century-old identity of the Moldovan
people separate from the Romanian identity.

Russia plane crash. The Russian transport minister Maksim
Sokolov said pilot error or a technical problem are probable causes for the
plane crash near Sochi. According to Russia Today tv station, the minister said
the possibility of a terrorist attack is not among the main theories, adding
that it is for the inquiry conducted together with defence ministry experts to
establish the exact causes of the crash. On Monday, a team of divers from the
Russian ministry for emergency situations found fragments believed to belong to
the plane one mile from the shore, sources with the emergency services have
announced. The Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft carrying 92 people crashed on Sunday in
the Black Sea shortly after taking off, on its way back to the airport in
Sochi. The plane was carrying members of the Russian Army Choir, an ensemble
considered a national symbol in Russia. The authorities have declared a day of
national mourning in memory of the victims.

Poll. Most
Germans are in favour of tighter security measures, including video surveillance
of public spaces, according to a poll carried out after last week’s attack in
Berlin, the German press agency DPA writes. The results of the YouGov survey
show that 60% of the Germans are in favour of the video surveillance of public
spaces, while 73% are in favour of increasing the number of police forces on
the streets. DPA recalls that there was no video surveillance of the Christmas
market in the west of Berlin where 12 people were killed when a lorry was
intentionally driven into the crowds. The city’s senate voted against increased
video surveillance, but the federal interior minister Thomas de Maiziere has
called on this body to discuss the subject again.

George Michael. The music and artistic community deplore
the death of the famous British pop singer George Michael, who passed away on
Sunday at the age of 53. His manager said the singer died peacefully at his
home. With a career of almost 40 years, both as a member of the band Wham! and
as a solo artist, George Michael was one of the best-known pop music singers,
having sold over 100 million albums worldwide. He gave a concert in Bucharest
in 2007. 2016 also saw the death of other world-famous singers, including David
Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen.