November 2, 2019

A roundup of domestic and international news

România Internațional, 02.11.2019, 14:09

Vote – On Monday, the
Romanian Parliament will hold a vote on the Liberal government proposed by the
prime minister designate Ludovic Orban. 233 yes votes are needed for the new
government to take office. To secure this outcome, Orban has concluded
political agreements and deals with the Save Romania Union, the Democratic
Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, the People’s Movement Party, the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and the group of ethnic minorities. The
Social Democratic Party and the Pro Romania party both said their members would
be absent from the vote. Orban’s cabinet would replace Viorica Dancila’s Social
Democratic government which was brought down following a no-confidence vote.
Ludovic Orban has proposed a government with fewer ministries whose priorities
include picking Romania’s candidate for the position of EU commissioner, the
final budget adjustment this year and the budget for next year.

Election – The Romanian Foreign Ministry has
announced that it has finalized the sending to the Romanian consulates and
diplomatic missions abroad of all the materials necessary for voting in the
presidential elections. For the 835 polling stations that will be set up
outside Romania’s borders, the ministry sent 4,483,907 ballots and 7,739 ‘VOTED’
stamps for the first round. The Romanians in the Republic of Moldova will have
27 polling stations, of which 12 in Chisinau. As a first, voting abroad will be
held over three days for each round, on
the 8th, 9th and 10th of November, and then on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th
respectively, in order to avoid queuing. Also, the Romanians who have
registered online will be able to resort to postal voting. The president of the
Permanent Electoral Authority has announced that the total amount earmarked for
this year’s presidential elections is 150 million Euro, the biggest so far.

Protest- Miners from two mines in the Jiu Valley,
in the centre-west, continue the protest started on Monday, when around 100
people barricaded themselves underground. They are about to lose their jobs at
the beginning of next year when the mines are closed. They say that if their
demands are not taken into consideration, they will go on hunger strike and
have requested the presence of the outgoing prime minister Viorica Dancila.
Miners want legislation that guarantees social protection after lay-off. The
process to close the two mines began at the end of 2017.

Mission – The ‘King Ferdinand’ frigate of
the Romanian Navy, together with a Puma Naval helicopter and a Navy Special
Operations unit are taking part until November 7th in a new NATO mission in the
Mediterranean. The goal of Operation ‘Sea Guardian 19’ is to deter illegal
activities on the southern flank of NATO and the EU, through sea and air
traffic monitoring. During the mission, the Romanian frigate will have
stopovers in Haifa, Israel, and Limassol, Cyprus. The first stop was in the
port of Aksaz, in the south of Turkey, followed by another one in Alexandria,
Egypt, where a meeting was held on board the ship with members of the Romanian
community in Egypt.

Impeachment- The American President Donald
Trump has stated that an ‘angry majority’ of voters will support him during the
impeachment inquiry started by the Democrats, a year before the
presidential elations. The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representative
Nancy Pelosi has announced that the hearings will start this month. The House
of Representatives has endorsed legislation to formally proceed with the
impeachment inquiry against president Donald Trump. It’s the third time in
America’s modern history when such a vote is held. President Trump is
essentially accused of using his office to obtain personal political gains
through a foreign state, in this case Ukraine. He is accused of making military
aid for Ukraine conditional on the Ukrainian government’s starting an
investigation into Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden. The White House said in
a statement that Trump did nothing illegal and described the investigation as unfair,
unconstitutional and fundamentally un-American.

Tourism- Arrivals in tourist accommodation
facilities in Romania in the first nine months of this year amounted to almost
ten a half million, up 4.4% compared with the same period last year, according
to data published on Friday by the National Statistics Institute. The same
report shows that Romanian tourists accounted for 79.8% of arrivals. Among
foreign tourists, around 74% came from Europe, the majority from the European
Union.