December 24, 2024 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 24.12.2024, 19:06

Transmitter. Dear friends, Radiocom has reported a major malfunction at one of the shortwave transmitters in Țigăneşti, near Bucharest. The RRI programs have been temporarily moved to a second transmitter, to other frequencies and, partially, to other target areas. Please go to RRI’s website, the How to listen button, to see the new frequencies.

Government. The appointment of the new PSD-PNL-UDMR Romanian Government sent a positive signal to Romanian businesspeople and foreign investors, claims the Social-Democratic prime minister Marcel Ciolacu. Last night, at the first meeting of his cabinet, he said that the interest rates for Romania’s external loans had already started to decrease. One of the priorities of the new Government is the building of the budget for next year, which seems to be, at the same time, the main difficulty it will face in the assumed effort to reduce spending. The draft budget law is based on a new emergency ordinance regarding fiscal-budgetary measures, which will include a large part of the unpopular measures that the Government must implement in order to reduce the deficit.

Cernăuţi. The leaders of the Romanian community in the Cernăuţi (Chernivtsi) region, in present-day Ukraine, have voiced thier concern over the Romanian state’s interrupting the payment of scholarships for students and teachers from Romanian schools and high schools, the special envoy of the state press agency AGERPRES reports. The scholarship, worth 400 Euros, is granted annually by the Romanian Government, through the Department for Romanians Everywhere, with the aim of encouraging learning in the Romanian language. Last year, over 5,500 students and over 1,200 teachers from Romanian schools in the Cernăuţi region benefited from this money, whose payment was, however, suspended in 2024. Over 400 thousand ethnic Romanians live in the neighboring state, the majority in northern Bukovina, in northern and southern Bessarabia and in Herța County, eastern Romanian territories annexed in 1940, following an ultimatum, by the Stalinist Soviet Union and taken over in 1991 by Ukraine, as a successor state.

Christmas Pastoral Speech . Christmas is a celebration of generosity and compassion, of the rebirth of hope for a better future, President Klaus Iohannis wrote in his holiday message, posted on social media. He wished Romanians to spend these blessed days in peace, with their family and all their loved ones, in the spirit of the Nativity traditions. “Let us not forget, in our prayers and in our signs of brotherly love for Christmas and New Year, our Romanian brothers and sisters who are far from the country and home” – asks, in turn, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daniel, in his Christmas Pastoral. On New Year’s night and day, let’s raise prayers of thanks to God (Te-Deum) for the benefits received from Him in the past year and ask Him for help in all the good and useful work of the year we enter” , the Patriarch urges. Cardinal Lucian, Major Archbishop of the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic, urges in the Christmas Pastoral to a life “in harmony and communion with one another”, stressing that one cannot contribute to a future of peace, freedom, without learning the lessons of history. At the last population and housing census in Romania, conducted in 2021, religious affiliation was declared by 16.397 million people from the total resident population. 85.3% of them are Orthodox, 0.7% Greek Catholic. 0.9% of the reviewers declared themselves without religion or atheists.

Moldova. Romania and the Republic of Moldova will continue to work for well-being, stability and European values, said President Klaus Iohannis, who congratulated the president of the neighboring state, Maia Sandu, upon her assuming her second mandate. On Tuesday, she took the oath of office, as president of the Republic of Moldova. In her speech, the head of state stressed that European integration and justice reform remain the main goals of her new term. At the same time, she warned that joining the EU is not a miraculous solution for all itnernatl problems. She also stresse dthat the Republic of Moldova managed to defend its democracy in teh face of extrnal trhats. Maia Sandu is the sixth president of the neighbouring state, the first woman in this position and the first directly elected president for two consecutive terms.