June 11, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Vlad Palcu, 11.06.2023, 18:49

STRIKE – Education trade union
representatives on Sunday met with government officials for a new round of
talks. The government made a new offer designed to end the strike in this
sector, offering a 25% salary increase starting June 1, and an additional 50%
increase in line with the salary grid starting January 1, 2024. €300 annual
bonuses will be awarded to teaching and auxiliary staff and €100 to non-teaching
staff until 2027. Teachers announced they will end the strike only when they
receive written guarantees the measures will be implemented. According to Prime
Minister Nicolae Ciucă, the government has submitted to public debate a draft
decree in this respect, and teachers must announce their decision on Monday
morning. Then, the government will convene again to adopt the emergency decree.
Meanwhile, the government adopted the emergency decree on the changes announced
by the Education Ministry regarding this year’s final exams. According to line
minister Ligia Deca, the written exams of the final evaluation exam for 8th
graders and the Baccalaureate exam will unfold as scheduled, without delay. The
special skills tests of the Baccalaureate exam have been cancelled and will
instead be equated to the average grades in the respective subjects for the
whole high school cycle. Final tests for 6th graders have also been
cancelled. Ligia Deca says the measures reflect the Education Ministry’s
efforts to finalize procedures at the end of the school year in the wake of the
teachers’ strike.

ROTATION – Leaders of the PNL, PSD and
UDMR in the ruling coalition are expected to make a decision regarding the
rotation of Prime Ministers. Parliament could thus cast its vote on the new
government structure next week. According to political sources, the Liberals
and Social-Democrats had informal meetings this weekend to discuss the
rotation. The Cabinet swap was supposed to take place on May 26, but was
postponed in light of the teachers’ strike. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă is
expected to tender his resignation, while PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu will
replace him. On Sunday, the latter said that PSD wants UDMR to remain a part of
the ruling coalition. We recall the current rotation system was agreed in the
protocol signed at the end of 2021, stipulating that PNL and PSD each head the
Cabinet for one and a half year terms in office.

RACE – A new edition of Race for the Cure Romania, a traditional
fund-raising event, was held on Sunday in Bucharest. Organized by Renașterea
(Rebirth) Foundation, the race entails 1 to 5km walks or races. This year’s
edition allowed inhabitants of other cities in Romania or the Diaspora to
support the initiative and donate for preventing and combating breast and
cervical cancer via the European platform www.raceforthecure.eu. 3,100 women
from Romania will benefit from funds raised in the event. According to Global
Cancer Observatory, in 2020 over 12,000 new cases of breast cancer and 3,400
new cases of cervical cancer were reported in Romania. Statistics also show
that over 22,000 women die to cancer every year in Romania, while 1 in 4 women
die to breast and cervical cancer, making Romania the country with the highest
premature mortality rates for these diseases in Europe.

TIFF – The Transylvania International Film Festival continues in
Cluj-Napoca until June 18. On the first two days of the event, the public got
to meet with Timothy Spall, the actor who plays Wormtail in the Harry Potter
series and who received the lifetime award at TIFF. Timothy Spall also features
in the 2023-released Northern Comfort,
also premiered at TIFF. On Saturday, the Swedish artist Jay-Jay Johanson gave a
concert, and his show was followed by the screening of And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine, a documentary produced
by Axel Danielson & Maximilien van Aertryck. Also last weekend, the
festival opened its film sections and activities addressing children and
teenagers. Next week, Australian actor Geoffrey Rush, American film director
Oliver Stone, Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco and Serbian actor Darko Perić are
expected to arrive in Cluj. Romanian film director Cristi Puiu and actress Anamaria
Marinca also return to TIFF, along with hundreds of other Romanian film
professionals. A total of 200 films from 45 countries, 380 screenings and over
1,000 celebrity guests await visitors and spectators in Cluj in this year’s
edition of TIFF. (VP)