November 17th, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of the main domestic and international news
România Internațional, 17.11.2014, 08:00
Klaus Iohannis, the candidate of the center-right Christian Liberal Alliance, in the opposition, won Sunday’s presidential election in Romania, according to the partial results announced by the Central Electoral Bureau, after the centralization of data collected from 76% of the polling stations. He got 54.81% of the votes, while his social democrat opponent Victor Ponta, the current Prime Minister of Romania, who ran on behalf of the alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party, won 45.19 % of the votes. Conceding his defeat, Victor Ponta congratulated Iohannis, but has stated he will not resign from the office of Prime Minister. According to the Central Electoral Bureau, the turnout on Sunday was 62%, the highest since 1990, when the first presidential elections in Romania’s post-communist history were held. Political analysts say that Iohannis’s victory can be regarded as a surprise, given that at the first round of elections, held on November 2nd, Johannis only got 30% of the votes, as compared to the 40% obtained by Ponta. The term of the current president, Traian Basescu, ends on December 21st.
363 thousand Romanians in the Diaspora voted in the presidential runoff on Sunday, as compared to 150 thousand at the first round. According to the Central Electoral Bureau, most of them voted in Italy, 95 thousand, and Spain, 83 thousand. Next came the Republic of Moldova, with over 35 thousand, Great Britain, with 25 thousand, France and Germany, with 16 thousand each, Belgium and the US, with approximately 11 thousand. Still, given the large number of voters, some of them did not manage to vote before the closing of the polling stations. In Turin and Paris, following protests by Romanians unhappy with the fact that they did not manage to vote, the gendarmes resorted to tear gas. Romanian communities abroad have again criticized the flaws in the organization of the voting. In token of solidarity with the Diaspora, protests continued in several cities across the country.
The presidential election in Romania, won on Sunday by the opposition candidate, has not been overlooked by the international press. A historic victory for Klaus Iohannis, headlined the German publication Die Welt, which recalled the statement made by Iohannis at the start of the election campaign: Everybody will be suprised! I am going to win!”. In turn, the Belgian paper ‚Der Standard’ wrote about the huge queues in the Diaspora, which was the cause of former Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean’s resignation after the first round. Reuters stressed the surpising comback of Iohannis, who, according to the Associated Press, promised to effectively fight corruption. Denigrated by his opponents, Iohannis managed to convince the voters pleading for a ‚normal’ Romania, France Presse reports, headlining Klaus Iohannis, the atypical road of the German from Transylvania”. The new president is protestant, in a predomintantly orthodox country.
At the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels today, Romania is represented by the under-secretary for European Affairs, George Ciamba. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the agenda of talks includes topics such as the crisis in Ukraine, the stage of the Middle East peace process and the Ebola outbreak. As regards the situation in Ukraine, the participants will discuss the implications of the elections held in the separatist regions of Lugansk and Donetk on November 2nd, the sanctions imposed on Russia and the energy issue, the Foreign Ministry’s press release also reads.
The US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Rose Gottemoller, is expected to Bucharest today. She will meet with Romanian officials for talks regarding international security. According to a press release by the Department of State, Mrs. Gottemoeller will give a speech at the National Defense University in Bucharest. Romania is the second leg, after Jordan, of a tour that the US official is taking over November 14th — 26th. The tour also includes India, Russia and Great Britain.
On the last day of the summit held in Brisbane, Australia, the G20 leaders committed themselves to adopting reforms aimed at boosting world economy. They agreed that world economy is fragile and structural reforms are needed, at a time when monetary and fiscal policy measures are not easy to take. They also committed to adopting reforms that would improve the labour market situation and the member states promised to restrain from using national currencies to get competitive advantages.
