March 22, 2025

A roundup of local and world news

Newsroom, 22.03.2025, 14:03

VOTE The listing order of the candidates in the upcoming presidential election in Romania will be set today by the Central Election Bureau. According to the institution, lots will be cast to decide the positions on ballots. Among the 11 candidates who officially remained in the presidential race there are the mayor general of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, who runs as an independent, the former liberal leader, Crin Antonescu, backed by the PSD-PNL-UDMR coalition, the former Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, who also runs as an independent, the head of the opposition USR, Elena Lasconi, who came second in the first round of the presidential election in 2024, cancelled by the Constitutional Court, and the opposition nationalist leader of AUR, George Simion. The election campaign is to kick off on April 4 and the first round of the presidential election takes place on May 4. The second round will be on May 18.

TENNIS The Romanian tennis player, Gabriela Ruse, will be taking on the world leader, Arina Sabalenka, of Belarus in the third round of Miami Open, a competition with 9 million dollars in prize money. The Romanian comes after a two-set win against Magdalena Frech of Poland. Another Romanian player, Sorana Cirstea was eliminated in the competition’s second round. She conceded defeat to US challenger Danielle Collins also in two setter, 6-4, 7-6. Ruse played in the Miami tournament only once in 2022, when she made it to the second round.

ARREST Bogdan Peschir, the man believed to be the main funder of the online campaign of the ultra-nationalist candidate, Calin Georgescu, has been placed in preventive detention. According to prosecutors, Peschir would have paid over 800 thousand Euros on Tiktok to influence voters and he would have allegedly transferred significant sums of money to hundreds of people in an attempt to convince them to vote for Calin Georgescu in the presidential election last year. The ruling is not definitive and Peschir’s lawyers said they would challenge it. According to the lawyers, Peschir wasn’t involved in the election campaign but he had a business interest to make it first to level 50, the highest donation level on TikTok. Prosecutors and policemen have conducted a series of searches in several counties and in Bucharest, involving a series of famous influencers on social networks, such as the one known as Makaveli, adviser of a senator from the opposition ultranationalist party, SOS Romania, and other people who are allegedly part of an organized crime group.

RIYADH Ukraine hopes to reach a partial truce with Russia, which may prevent further attacks against the energy sector as well as against other infrastructures and ships in the Black Sea, during the talks brokered by the USA in Saudi Arabia, according to statements by Ukrainian officials, including by president Zelenskyy, AFP reports. He announced that a Ukrainian delegation will be meeting American officials in Saudi Arabia on Monday. A Russian-American meeting is also going to take place in the same place on the same day, but no Russian-Ukrainian contacts have been scheduled, as their delegations are to be in separate rooms. The Ukrainian President says that his Defence Minister, Rustem Umerov, will be attending together with a group of non-political experts a new round of talks with the US delegation. Zelenskyy has confirmed the meeting in Saudi Arabia will be of a technical nature and its goal is to set the details of a partial ceasefire with Russia, a ceasefire, which from Ukraine’s point of view should include not only energy infrastructures but also other civilian infrastructures.

ID About five million electronic ID cards are to be issued by Romanian authorities until June 2026, the Interior Ministry in Bucharest says. According to the aforementioned institution, the first issue will be made with European funds. The Romanian authorities have made an ample presentation of the new documents they have already started issuing first in Cluj, north-western Romania, and then in the entire territory. The new documents are smaller, having the dimension of a bank card with advanced security elements to prevent forgery and theft and may offer easy access to electronic services. The first Integrated IT System for issuing ID cards has also been implemented with European funding.

(bill)