November 25, 2023

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 25.11.2023, 13:53

Abuse of office. The legal committee of the Romanian Senate must react by Wednesday to the National Anticorruption Directorates request for the prosecution of the former Liberal PM, Senator Florin Cîțu. He is accused of abuse of office with regard to the procurement of anti-Covid vaccines during the pandemic. Former Health Ministers Vlad Voiculescu and Ioana Mihăilă, members of the Save Romania Union, are also accused of abuse of office, and president Klaus Iohannis needs to green-light the lifting of their immunity. Prosecutors say the three purchased 52 million doses more than necessary, causing a prejudice of 1 bln EUR. The vaccines were purchased at a very difficult time during the pandemic, dominated by uncertainty regarding the evolution of the virus, the availability of mass-production of vaccines and the need for re-vaccination, Vlad Voiculescu explained. The former Health Minister blamed Florin Cîțu for taking the final decision, and in turn the former Liberal Prime Minister said every decision made during his mandate was in good faith and in compliance with the law. The President of the Save Romania Union, Catalin Drula, claims that the case against Vlad Voiculescu is an alarming evidence of how state institutions are used against the political opposition, given that elections are due next year. In turn, the Liberal Justice Minister Alina Gorghiu criticizes the accusations brought by the leader of SRU.

Hostages. The first 24 hostages – 13 Israelis, 10 Thais and a Filipino – were released on Friday by the terrorist group Hamas, on the first day of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for 39 Palestinians, released in the West Bank, the Israeli authorities have announced. The cease-fire agreement will last three more days and should result in the release of a total of 50 Hamas hostages and 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Today, another 13 hostages are to be released, most of them children. In addition, on each day of the truce, approximately 200 trucks with food, medicine and fuel will enter Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the release of hostages and said all efforts will be focused on bringing home the remaining Israeli hostages. In turn, American President Joe Biden thanked the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Israel for the release of the hostages. The war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was triggered by an attack of unprecedented scale and violence committed by Hamas, on October 7, in southern Israel. According to the authorities, 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and about 240 people kidnapped on the day of the attack. In retaliation, Israel has bombed the Gaza Strip ever since, where almost 15,000 people were killed, including over 6,000 children, according to Hamas. At the same time, Israel started a ground operation, in the north of the Gaza Strip, for the total destruction of Hamas.

Gaza. Following complex efforts by the Inter-institutional Crisis Cell, through the Romanian Embassy in Cairo and the Romanian Representative Office in Ramallah, 12 Romanian citizens and their family members, evacuated from the Gaza Strip, were brought to Romania on Friday, on board a flight operated by the national company Tarom. The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues dialogue with the Israeli and Egyptian authorities with a view to facilitating the return of the other Romanian citizens and their families in Gaza who have requested support in this regard, in keeping with the developments on the ground and the agreement of the parties involved. On Thursday, the Romanian Government approved the normative act on the basis of which financial aid is granted to Romanian citizens evacuated from the Gaza Strip. The 249 people, Romanian citizens and their families, will receive, starting next month, financial aid for food, accommodation and other needs. For food, each person, alone or from a family, will receive the sum of 600 lei, the equivalent of 120 euros. Families with up to five members will receive another 2,000 lei (around 400 euros) for accommodation, and those with more than five members will receive 3,000 lei (600 euros) for accommodation. This financial aid will be granted for four months.

Vehicles. The Romanian state offers the biggest subsidies in the European Union for the purchase of electric and hybrid cars, the state secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests, Bogdan Balanişcu, said on Friday. These are vouchers that can reach over 10,000 euros, benefiting those Romanian citizens who want to buy an electric car. It is a way to remove 250 thousand cars from the street and to stop the pollution that these old cars create, the official explained. According to the latest data provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, approximately 8,000 vehicles with zero CO2 emissions were registered in Romania in the first semester of 2023. This past summer, there were some 33 thousand electric vehicles and 154 thousand hybrid vehicles registered in Romania.

Gaudeamus. The 30th edition of the Gaudeamus Radio Romania Book Fair, the longest-running event of its kind in the country, continues in Bucharest. The volume “Once upon a time on the radio (1928-1938)” by Monica Ghita-Stoica, a Radio Romania International journalist, is to be released today at the fair. The book is addressed to students and philologists, journalists, sociologists, as well as the general public who wants to know where Romania was placed, between 1928 and 1938, with regard to international radio communication. On an area of ​​thousands of square meters, stands and event spaces are hosting, until Sunday, almost 200 participants, who have prepared an extremely varied range of editorial products, on different supports, suitable for all ages and fields of interest, music and educational games. (MI)