9 September 2018

School begins on Monday for three million Romanian children./ Fresh anti-government protests are expected in Romania.

Newsroom, 09.09.2018, 13:07

Back to school. School begins on Monday in
Romania for around three million children. The secretary of state in the
education ministry Florian Lixandru told Radio Romania that only 80% of
pre-university schools have the sanitary approval. The ministry together with
representatives of the local authorities are looking for solutions for the
other 20%, the official said. The education ministry has also promised to post
as quickly as possible the correct digital versions of the manuals of biology
and geography that contained mistakes in their print versions. The committee for
education in the Chamber of Deputies will hold a hearing next week with the
management of the publishing house that printed the manuals.

Protests. The German pianist Davide
Martello gave an outdoor concert on Saturday evening outside the government
building in the centre of Bucharest as part of an event organised on social
media under the heading A Taste of Freedom. Martello gave similar concerts in
various conflict areas around the world such as Taksim Square in Istanbul, the
Bataclan club in Paris, the so-called Euromaidan in Kiev and in Afghanistan. He
said he decided to come to Romania to support the people protesting against
corruption. Hundreds of people attended the concert held almost a month after
the anti-government demonstration of the Romanian diaspora on the 10th
of August, which was marked by violence and which ended when the riot police intervened
forcefully. Hundreds of people were wounded in the incidents. On Monday, fresh
anti-government protests are expected to take place in Bucharest, around the
country and abroad.

Dialogue. A modern budget for a stronger
European Union is the main theme of a dialogue with citizens held by the
European commissioners Phil Hogan, who is responsible for agriculture and rural
development, and Corina Creţu, who is responsible for regional policy, in
Cluj, in the north-west of Romania. Citizens can attend the debates but first
have to fill in a registration form online, by Thursday night at the latest, or
through Facebook and Twitter.

Visit. The Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte
will travel to Romania on Wednesday in the context of Romania’s presidency of
the Council of the European Union in the first part of next year, the Dutch
embassy in Bucharest said on its Facebook page. Mr Rutte is expected to have
talks with president Klaus Iohannis and prime minister Viorica Dancila about
bilateral cooperation in the political and economic areas and topical issues on
the European agenda.

Cooperation. Romania and the Republic of Korea will continue the
upward trend of their bilateral ties based on a common set of values such as
democracy, a free economy, human rights and the rule of law, according to a
release from the Romanian foreign ministry to mark the 10th
anniversary of the strategic partnership between the two countries. The
ministry also states its satisfaction with the current stage of bilateral
relations. Amid a complex situation in the Korean Peninsula, writes the press
release, promoting peace, stability and security in the spirit of the
principles and norms recognised in international law remains an essential goal
of international cooperation between Romania and the Republic of Korea.

Commemoration. The village of Treznea, in noth-western
Romania is today hosting events to commemorate the massacre committed on the 9th
of September 1940 by the troops of Horthy’s Hungary. Soon after the signing of
the Vienna Diktat by which Nazi Germany became allies with Fascist Italy,
Romania was forced to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary, where the
Hungarian troops killed hundreds of ethnic Romanians. 86 were killed in Treznea
and 157 in Ip, among other places. Towards the end of the Second World War, on
the 14th of October 1944, a similar massacre occurred in Moisei,
where 29 ethnic Romanians were killed.

Sweden elections. Parliamentary elections are being held today in
Sweden. Opinion polls put the main centre-left and centre-right parties within a
short distance from each other and there is a possibility that none of them will
get a majority in the future parliament. The anti-immigration far-right group
is expected to obtain around 20% of the votes, which would make them the second
biggest parliamentary group.

Football. Romania face Serbia on Monday in their second
match as part of the newly created Nations League in football. In their first
Group 4 match on Friday against Montenegro, Romania drew nil-all. Because of a
penalty imposed by UEFA, the match played without any spectators, which was a
first for the Romanian football side. Also on Friday, Serbia defeated Lithuania
1-nil. The results in the Nations League count towards the 2020 European
Championship preliminaries.