June 17, 2019

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Newsroom, 17.06.2019, 14:45

MAYOR Romanian musician Octavian Ursu, born
in Bucharest, has become the Christian-Democratic mayor of the German city of
Gorlitz after defeating in the second round of the local election Sebastian
Wippel a former policeman, representative of the Alternative for Germany. The
Romanian mustered 55% of the votes in the second round of the election. Ursu,
51, graduated from the Music Conservatory in Bucharest and left for Germany
where he got hired at the Gorlitz philharmonic as a soloist. In 2009, he enlisted
with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and in 2010 he took over the
municipal constituency in Gorlitz. In 2014, Ursu got elected in the legislature
of the Federal State of Saxony. The Romanian got support from celebrities from
Germany and abroad who signed a petition urging the citizens to vote against
‘hatred and hostility, isolation and discord’. Famous movies like ‘Inglorious
Basterds’ and ‘Monuments Men’ have been shot in Gorlitz.

DIPLOMACY The head of the Romanian
diplomacy, Teodor Melescanu, is in Luxembourg to participate in the EU Foreign
Affairs Council’s meeting. According to a communiqué from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in Bucharest, the member states are holding talks on ways of
improving the Common Foreign Policy and Security. The participants are also
tackling topical issues such as the situation in the Republic of Moldova, an
ex-soviet Romanian-speaking country, and the latest developments in Sudan. They
will also be discussing the situation in the Middle East with their Jordanian
counterpart Ayman Safadi. A meeting of the foreign and defence ministers from
the EU countries is also taking place today. High on the agenda is the process
of implementing the EU Global Strategy.

FOOTBALL Romania’s under-21 football
side is today taking on Croatia in the European Football Championship in Italy
and San Marino. In the same group C, England will be playing France. In the
first matches in group A, Poland defeated Belgium 3-2 and Italy obtained a 3-1
win against Spain. In group B today, Serbia will be playing Austria and Germany
takes on Denmark. This is Romania’s second participation in a final tournament
after that in 1998 staged in Bucharest. Back then Romania ended in the last
position out of 8 participants. The finals will take place on June 30th.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, a former world number one player,
is currently ranking 8th in the standings of the world’s
professional tennis players published today. First in the ranking comes Naomi
Osaka of Japan, followed by Ashleigh Barty of Australia and Karolina Pliskova
of the Czech Republic. Top 100 also includes another two Romanians, Mihaela
Buzarnescu, currently ranking 42nd and Sorana Cirstea who comes in
the 77th position.

CARS
Over two thirds of the cars registered in Romania in the first five months of
the year are second-hand purchases. According to the National Directorate for
Licenses and Registration, out of the 240 thousand vehicles registered in
Romania since January until the end of May only 60 thousand are new vehicles.
Nevertheless, the number of new vehicles registered in this period is 20%
higher than the similar period of 2018. The so-called ‘Rabla’ programme has
significantly contributed to this increase as under this programme, over 30
thousand people have so far benefited from bonuses to scrap their old
vehicles. The Romanians’ mostly preferred brands are the local Dacia, followed
by Volkswagen, Skoda, Renault and Ford. At the end of last year Romania had
over 8 million vehicles registered, 7% higher than in 2017.

(translated by bill)