January 11, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 11.01.2020, 19:00

EARLY ELECTIONS – Prime Minister and leader of
the National Liberal Party, Ludovic Orban, announced following Friday’s talks
with President Klaus Iohannis that they reached an agreement to kick off
procedures to organize early elections. The Prime Minister said a special task
force will be set up to negotiate with parties to rally their support. Ludovic
Orban said the Social-Democratic Party, which holds a fragile majority in
Parliament, is hindering the legislative process, the only solution being the
organization of early elections at a date close to the local elections slated
for May. In another development, the Social-Democrats said they might call for
a no-confidence vote against the Government, saying the idea of early elections
would plunge Romania into a superficial political crisis. In turn, the Save
Romania Union-PLUS Alliance believes early elections might represent the best
solution at present.

IRAN-US
CRISIS – Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski and his French counterpart,
Emmanuel macron, on Saturday agreed that French specialists should help decode
the black boxes recovered from the Ukrainian Airlines passenger jet shot down
on Wednesday, near Teheran, which killed all the 176 people onboard. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
misidentified the plane as a cruise missile, taking it down with a short-range
ballistic missile. According to the Fars agency, the Supreme Leade, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, was informed that the tragedy was the result of a human error,
and the leader wanted the truth to be made public. Iranian President Hasan Rouhani expressed his
deep regret over the incident which he labeled a great tragedy and an
unforgivable error. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski said the culprits
must be held accountable as compensation to the victims’ families. In turn,
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for justice to be served to the
victims’ families. We recall a Ukrainian airliner crashed on Wednesday shortly
after taking off from Teheran airport, hours after Iran launched a missile
attack on two US military bases in Iraq. The plane was bound for Canada via
Kiev, with most of the passengers on the manifest due to disembark in the
Ukrainian capital city.

RATING – Fitch Ratings has confirmed the ratings for long-term loans in
local and hard currency at BBB minus, with a stable outlook. The short-term
prospect was set at F3. The financial rating agency believes Bucharest has
stable income sources, while its growth prospects are in line with Romania’s
GDP growth. Bucharest is also the capital and the biggest city in Romania,
being home to 2.1 million inhabitants with living conditions above the national
average. Over 11% of Romania’s population lives in Bucharest, the city’s GDP
contribution exceeding 20%. The unemployment rate was 1.4% at the end of 2018,
and the city boasts numerous job opportunities.
The city’s population is growing, while the GDP per capita is four times
the national average, Fitch also writes.

ROMAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH – As of Saturday Aurel Perca
(aged 68) has become the new Roman-Catholic Archbishop of Bucharest. To mark
this event a solemn mass was officiated at the St. Joseph Roman-Catholic
cathedral in the capital city, attended by thousands of faithful and over 200
priests, two cardinals, 24 Catholic bishops, civil and political authorities,
representatives of the diplomatic corps and knights of the Sovereign Military
Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta. Aurel
Perca was appointed Archbishop of Bucharest by Pope Francis after Ioan Robu
turned 75, the canonical age of retirement under the laws of the Catholic
Church. Previously Perca served as auxiliary bishop of Iasi. He was ordained in
1979 and named bishop in 1999. Ioan Robu will become an emeritus metropolitan
archbishop.

OMAN – Romania’s President Klaus
Iohannis on Saturday conveyed his condolences for the death of Oman’s Sultan,
Qaboos bin Said al-Said. Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, Qaboos’s cousin, was sworn
in on Saturday as the new sovereign leader of Oman, the Government in Muscat
has announced. Oman’s Royal Family decided to open the letter where Qaboos
designated his successor. The Constitution of Oman stipulates that the Royal
Family can appoint a successor of its own within three days of the throne
falling vacant. Sultan Qaboos of Oman passed away on Friday, aged 79, after
nearly half a century of rule. Supported by Western powers, Qaboos ascended to
the throne in 1970, at the end of a bloodless coup, assisted by Great Britain.
The new Sultan, Haitahm bin Tariq, aged 65, a sports enthusiast, served as
deputy secretary of state in the Foreign Ministry before becoming Minister of
Heritage and Culture in the mid-90s. In the 1980s Haitham bin Tariq became the
first president of Oman’s Football Federation.

TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Simona
Halep will play Germany’s Angelique Kerber in a demonstrative doubles match
featuring other special guests on Sunday in Adelaide, organizers of the WTA
tournament say. The match will be part of the event called The Adelaide
International Rally for Resilience, meant to raise funds to support the
victims of the wildfires in Australia. 27 people were killed in the raging
bushfires and 63,000 square kilometers burned to the ground. World no. 3,
Simona Halep is seeded 2nd in the Adelaide tournament, also
featuring the WTA leader Ashleigh Barty, Czech player Petra Kvitova (WTA no.
7), Belinda Bencic of Switzerland (WTA no. 8) and Kiki Bertens of the
Netherlands (9 WTA). Halep is now training with her coach, Darren Cahill in
Adelaide.

(Translated by V. Palcu)