May 26, 2014 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

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România Internațional, 26.05.2014, 19:44

According to partial results made public by the Central Electoral Bureau on Monday, in Romania the ruling alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party has got 37.60% of the votes cast in Sunday’s elections for the European Parliament. Next come the National Liberal Party with 15% and the Liberal Democratic Party with 12.23%. Also winning a seat in the European Parliament is independent Mircea Diaconu, with 6.81%, who outdistanced the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and the pro-presidential People’s Movement Party, which got 6.30% and 6.21% respectively.

The Romanian Parliament on Monday rejected the no-confidence motion filed by the opposition National Liberal Party against the Government headed by social democrat Victor Ponta. 176 MPs voted in favour, but for the motion to pass, at least 286 out of the 571 parliamentarians should have voted in favour. The initiators of the motion have accused the executive for failing to keep its promises, more specifically no tax on the reinvested profits and lower social security contributions.

Anti-terror operations will continue in the east of Ukraine, if the pro-Russian separatists do not lay down weapons, said on Monday the future president of Ukraine, billionaire Petro Porosenko. He also said that he would keep in office the current interim Prime Minister Arseni Iateniuk, the one who negotiated with the west a financial aid package worth 27 billion dollars. Porosenko got 54% of the votes in Sunday’s early presidential elections, according to partial results announced by the Central Electoral Commission in Kiev. Second came the former Prime Minister Iulia Timosenko, with only 13% of the votes. OSCE observers have stated that the elections took place in keeping with the international standards.

Romanian Air Force aircrafts are participating in the multinational exercise THRACIAN STAR 2014, hosted by neighboring Bulgaria until June 4th. The exercise was organized jointly by Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and the US and its main goals are to improve multinational training, develop cooperation and boost interoperability among the NATO forces. According to the Romanian Defense Ministry, the exercise was planned a year ago and was included the Romanian Air Force Staff Plan.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, ranked 4th in the world, will on Tuesday play against Russian Alisa Kleibanova, at the French Open Roland Garros, the second Grand Slam of the year. Another Romanian player, Alexandra Cadantu, ranked 81st, will meet the Dutch Kiki Bertens. On Sunday, Monica Niculescu, ranked 76th in the WTA classification, qualified for the second round, after defeating Kaia Kanepi of Estonia. In the men’s competition, Romania is represented by Horia Tecau, who pairs the Dutch Jean Julen Rojer, and Victor Hanescu.