February 6, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 06.02.2022, 19:00

Pandemic.
The Romanian government has extended the state of alert for a further 30 days
from Monday. First declared in 2020 after two months of state of emergency following
the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, the state of alert provides, among others,
for the obligatory wearing of face masks both indoors and outdoors. Cinemas,
theatres and restaurants can open at 50% capacity in localities with an
incidence rate below 3 per 1,000 inhabitants and at 30% where the incidence
rate exceeds this level. Under a new emergency order, the deadline for filling
in the digital form on entering the country has been extended from 24 to 72
hours. The authorities said the time when the state of alert is lifted is nearing,
but that a decision in this sense will only be taken after careful
consideration. More than 16,000 new cases were reported today, as well as 82
related fatalities, including 7 from an earlier date. Since the start of the
pandemic, Romania reported 2.3 million Covid cases and over 60,000 related
fatalities. With only 8 million people fully vaccinated, the country has the
second lowest vaccination rate in the 27 EU member states, with only Bulgaria
doing worse.

Motion. Parliament will be debating on Monday a
no-confidence motion against the energy minister, the Liberal Virgil Popescu,
introduced by the Save Romania Union, in opposition. The motion, signed by 51
MPs, accuses Popescu of being a threat to the country’s energy security, asking
for his dismissal. The Save Romania Union also denounces what it describes as
the disastrous way in which the government has managed the energy bills issue,
saying people have ended paying huge sums, with both citizens and the economy
suffering as a result of the decisions made by the authorities. The motion will
be put to the vote on Wednesday. Also next week, the Senate’s specialist
committees will begin debating a government order on caps and compensations for
electricity and natural gas bills. The main parties in the ruling coalition,
the National Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, disagree, however,
on how long the new support scheme should be applied for. The Social Democrats
want it to also apply retroactively, while the Liberals say this may be unconstitutional.

Romanians abroad. The head of the Romanian
Senate’s foreign policy committee Titus Corlăţean said he would invite the
Danish ambassador to Bucharest to discuss with the committee on Monday the case
of a Romanian couple detained in Denmark and accused of maltreating their
5-week old baby. The two Romanians, husband and wife, are held in different
detention centres and are not allowed to see their baby. Corlăţean said the
couple, who have residence permits in Denmark, are Romanian citizens, and so is
their baby. He said there have been cases when the national authorities of
west-European states intervened in the family life of Romanian citizens living
on their territory, but did not brief the state of citizenship, in keeping with
international law.

Queen. Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday became the
first monarch in the country’s history to celebrate 70 years in the throne. He
platinum jubilee was overshadowed, however, by the absence of her husband, who
died in 2021, conflicts in the royal family and the queen’s fragile health.
Elizabeth took the throne in 1952, at the age of 25, after the death of her
father, King George VI. In her 70-year-long reign, she witnessed some historic
events and dramatic family moments, from the separation of the prince and
princess of Wales in 1992 and the death of princess Diana in 1997 to the
decision of her nephew Harry and his wife Meghan Markle to leave the royal
family and Britain. Queen Elizabeth has been served by 14 prime ministers, from
Winston Churchill to Boris Johnson. The official platinum jubilee events
will be held between 2nd and 5th of June.

Handball. The Romanian women’s handball
champions CSM Bucharest on Sunday defeated the Croatian side Podravka Vegeta
Koprivnica 29-21 in a Champions League Group A match at home. CSM are in fourth
place in their group with 14 points and will next play Rostov on Don from
Russia on 12th February away. Also on Sunday, CS Minaur Baia Mare defeated
the French side Les Neptunes de Nantes in Group B of the women’s EHF European
League and will next play the Polish side MKS Zaglebie Lubin on 13th
February. Another Romanian side
in this completion, SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea on Saturday pulled off their third
consecutive win in Group D, defeating the French side Chambray Touraine
Handball.

Olympics. At
the Olympic Games in Beijing, Romania’s Valentin Creţu finished 29th
after three heats in the luge men’s singles competition, missing the final
heat. In the ski jumping men’s normal
hill individual, Daniel Cacina was in 48th place and Andrei
Feldorean in the 50th, both failing to qualify for the final round.
In men’s 30km skiathlon, Romania’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony Paul
Pepene finished 28th. Romania has 21 athletes at the Games, in luge, bobsleigh, alpine skiing,
cross-country skiing, ski jumping, biathlon and speed skating. The Olympic
Games got under way on 4th February and will come to an end on the
20th, being held amid a diplomatic boycott from the United States
and other Western states who accuse China of human rights abuses. The Chinese
foreign minister accused the US administration of violating the principle of
the political neutrality of sports. (CM)