December 22, 2020
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 22.12.2020, 20:00
DESIGNATION – President Klaus
Iohannis on Tuesday designated the current Finance Minister, Liberal Florin Cîţu, as the country’s new Prime
Minister. The announcement came after the second round of talks held on Tuesday
with parliamentary parties. Florin Cîţu was nominated by the leaders of
the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union – PLUS Alliance and the
Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, who on Monday signed an
agreement for government for the next four years. After the talks the coalition
leaders said they want the new Cabinet to be sworn in as quickly as possible in
order to make the necessary reforms. The Prime Minister designate Florin Cîţu promised he would do
everything in his power to ensure stable and long-term governance, also
pointing out the priority of his Cabinet would be to overcome the health crisis
and economic recovery. Although invited to attend the talks, the Social
Democratic Party, which won the largest number of votes in the recent
parliamentary elections, did not show up. After the elections, the Social
Democrats said the best solution given the coronavirus pandemic is a national
unity government led by the doctor Alexandru Rafila, Romania’s representative
to the World Health Organization. The leaders of the Alliance for the Union of
Romanians, which grabbed the fourth largest number of votes in the December 6
parliamentary election, also attended the talks, saying they won’t be voting
for the Cîţu Cabinet.
COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – Some 5,000 new
coronavirus cases were recorded on Tuesday in Romania, with total infections
now nearing 600,000. Tuesday also saw 155 new fatalities, taking the death toll
to 14,636. 1,252 Covid patients are in intensive care.
RESTRICTIONS – Globally, there
are over 77.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases and some 1.7 million
fatalities. There are over 320,000 deaths in the United States. In Europe,
governments have imposed special restrictions around the winter holidays to
prevent the further spread of the virus. Non-essential shops are closed in
Germany until January 10, Italy is under lockdown around Christmas and New
Year. In France, people will be allowed to leave their homes and the night-time
curfew will be lifted. In Poland, schools, restaurants and ski slopes remain
closed until January 17, a travel ban is in place in Croatia and tourism is
banned in Bulgaria until the end of January. The emergence of a new strain of
the virus in Great Britain has caused panic around the world. The World Health
Organisation says, however, that this new strain is not out of
control.
VACCINE – The European
Medicines Agency on Monday approved the Covid Pfizer BioNTech vaccine which is
already being rolled out in the UK and the United States. The authorization is
valid in all 27 EU member states and provides solid scientific foundation for
the implementation of vaccination programmes and a framework for continuous
supervision and control, said the Agency chief Emer Cooke. European countries
are planning to kick-start the vaccination campaign on December 27. The
Romanian authorities say they are also ready to begin mass vaccination on this
date. The first 10,000 doses are expected to reach Romania on Saturday, and the
first to receive the vaccine are medical workers in infectious diseases
hospitals.
1989 – The heroes of the
1989 anti-communist Revolution were honored on Tuesday in Bucharest and other
cities in Romania on the 31st anniversary of the fall of communism.
A remembrance service and other events were held in Bucharest, including
outside the headquarters of the public radio and television stations. Military
festivities were held around the country, and flowers were laid at the
memorials dedicated to the heroes of the Revolution, in strict observance of
the physical distancing rules in place. President Klaus Iohannis issued a
statement saying justice must do its duty in the case of those guilty for the
bloody reprisals in December 1989. The Romanian anti-communist uprising began
in Timișoara (west) on December 16 and on the 21st began to spread
to Bucharest and other cities. Romania was the only country in the former
eastern bloc where the regime change occurred through bloodshed and where the
former communist leaders were executed. More than 1,000 people were killed in
the uprising and some 3,000 wounded. (C. Mateescu & V. Palcu)
