August 18, 2020

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 18.08.2020, 14:15

TALKS Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, is today participating
in a working meeting with the country’s Prime Minister and other government
members, the Presidential Administration has announced. The country’s Deputy
Prime Minister Raluca Turcan, Finance Minister Florin Citu, Economy Minister
Virgil Popescu, Transport Minister Lucian Bode and the Minister of Agriculture
and Rural Development, Adrian Oros, are also attending.

COVID-19 Authorities in Romania
have so far confirmed over 71 thousand Covid-19 infections while roughly 33
thousand patients have been cured and left hospitals. According to the
Strategic Communication Group almost 500 patients are in intensive care units
and the death toll stays around 3029. Authorities are concerned about the rising
number of patients in need of intensive care. The country’s Liberal Prime
Minister Ludovic Orban has announced the government’s intention to increase the
capacity of the Intensive Care Units at the country’s main Infectious Diseases
Institute Matei Bals in Bucharest as well as in other cities across the country
like Brasov, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi. According to the Prime Minister, Romania
presently can treat one thousand patients in its IC units.

PROTESTS Belarus has seen
another night of protests against the country’s president Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Protesters have denounced Lukashenko’s landslide victory in last Sunday’s
election, which has been condemned amid widespread allegations of vote-rigging.
Lukashenko seems to enjoy loyal support from security agencies around the
country thanks to the people placed in high positions in the past 26 years. The
country has seen a wave of protests after the Central Election Commission two
days ago said that Lukashenko had won 80.1% of the votes. Hundreds of
protesters have been wounded and two have died in clashes with police over the
past week. Some 67 hundred have been arrested and many have reported torture at
the hands of the security forces. Russian president Vladimir Putin says that
Russia is ready to offer support if needed. This has been the strongest wave of
protests against Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule since he took power 26 years
ago.

ELECTION Today is the last day to announce candidates
running in the upcoming local elections in Romania on September 27th.
The election campaign is due to commence on August 28th and end on
September 26th. Bucharest’s incumbent mayor Gabriela Firea from the
opposition PSD is running for a second term in office. The other candidates vying
for the Bucharest mayor seat are Nicusor Dan, backed by the right-wing National
Liberals and the USR-PLUS Alliance, the country’s former Prime Minister and
ALDE leader Calin Popescu Tariceanu and the country’s former president and
former mayor of Bucharest Traian Basescu.

MOTION A censure motion the opposition Social Democrats
(PSD) has tabled against the Liberal government led by Ludovic Orban is going
to be read before Parliament in plenary session on Thursday. Debates and voting
upon the aforementioned motion are yet to be set but the initiators of this
motion suggestively titled ‘The PNL government -from pandemic to generalized
bribe-taking’ have lashed out at the way in which the minority executive has
managed the coronavirus pandemic and the measures aimed at economic recovery.
Prime Minister Orban believes the PSD move is irresponsible adding the PNL is
considering ways of challenging it at the Constitutional Court as a censure
motion cannot be initiated during a Parliament recess.