February 4, 2017

Protests continue in Bucharest against the Government's decree amending the criminal codes.

Newsroom, 04.02.2017, 14:07

ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTEST Protests continue in Bucharest against the
decree issued by the Romanian Government to amend the criminal codes. Last
night, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets again, in Bucharest
as well as in many other towns and cities across the country and abroad, to
demonstrate against the provisions of the emergency ordinance which, they say,
helps high-ranking politicians and local and central government officials to no
longer be held accountable for corruption. The Social Democratic Party has
announced its intention to hold next week a meeting of support for the
Grindeanu Government. Party speakers say it is not going to be a counter-rally,
but their supporters are entitled to be heard too. The Labour Minister Lia
Olguta Vasilescu has stated that branches of the National Liberal Party and of
the Save Romania Union, in the opposition, intend to bring party members from
all over the country to take part in the anti-government demonstrations. The
former Minister for Business Environment Florin Jianu, who resigned on
Thursday, told the CNN that the bills amending the criminal codes were passed
without informing the cabinet members. Such a decision, made late, on Tuesday
night, was not right, Jianu said. President Klaus Iohannis has notified the
Constitutional Court, signalling the conflict between the Government on the one
hand, and the Judiciary and Parliament on the other. The Supreme Council of
Magistracy, the Ombudsman and the General Prosecutor are too against the
provisions of the ordinance. The embassies in Bucharest of the US, Belgium, Canada, France,
Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Sweden have voiced their concern
over the situation in Romania. They have warned that Government’s actions might
affect these countries’ partnerships with Romania, which are based on common
values, shared by the EU and NATO. In a statement on Radio Romania, the
spokesman for the US Department of State Mark Toner has said that by abrogating
the ordinance, the Executive would uphold the country’s credibility in the eyes
of the international community and its attractiveness to investors.

2017 DRAFT BUDGET The joint budget-finances committees of the
Romanian Parliament are discussing the 2017 draft state budget. A report must
be concluded by Sunday evening, for the document to be debated in plenary
parliament session on Monday. Speaking on behalf of the Government made up of
representatives of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and
Democrats in Romania, the Finance Minister Viorel Stefan gave assurances that
the draft observes the main directions established under the governing program,
among which slashing the VAT from 20 to 19% and eliminating the income tax on
pensions of up to 2000 lei, which is the equivalent of some 400 Euros. The budget was
built taking into account a growth rate of 5.2% and a deficit of maximum 3%.
Also, Romania will stay committed to allocating 2% of the GDP to defense. The
right wing opposition, however, believes that the revenues on the basis of
which the budget was built are overestimated.

COMMEMORATION Commemorative events were held on Saturday at
the Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance in Sighet, north-western
Romania, to mark 64 years since the death of the great politician Iuliu Maniu.
The political personality of the leader of the National Peasant Party, who was
a Prime Minister between the wars and a member of the Romanian Academy, was
evoked through various presentations and speeches. A militant for national
union, a promoter of the democratic values, an opponent of Nazism and
Communism, Maniu was arrested in 1947 by the dummy Government imposed by the
Soviets and died in 1953 at the age of 80 in the Sighet prison, where most of
the former Democratic dignitaries had been imprisoned.

AWARD Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis has been
awarded the Saint George Medal at an event organized by the Semper Opera House
in Dresden, eastern Germany, for his political commitment to promoting the
European project and its values. According to a communiqué issued on Saturday
by the Presidential Administration in Bucharest, the president has stated he
received the medal in the name of all Romanians and devoted it to the Romanian -
German friendship. Iohannis, who is a member of the German community in Romania
himself, has also said that Europe must show more determination and more
commitment to settling the issues it faces, to defend the European project and
democracy. Other personalities who have received the medal are the former
German President Christian Wulff, the former European Commissioner Gunther
Oettinger, the former president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso
and the current European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

TENNIS Romanian
tennis players Horia Tecau and Nicolae Frunza are today playing against the
pair Max Mirnyi – Egor Gherasimov of Belarus, in the doubles of the first round
of Davis Cup’s Europe/Africa Zone Group I. The two teams now stand on equal
positions, after on Friday the Romanian Adrian Ungur defeated Ilya Ivashka, and
Marius Copil lost to Gherasimov. The last two singles are scheduled for Sunday:
Copil – Ivashka and Ungur -Gherasimov.