November 9, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news.
România Internațional, 09.11.2014, 19:25
The Romanian Foreign Ministry has announced that it increased the number of staff by about 800 both in Romania and at its diplomatic and consular missions abroad, to make sure the second round of the presidential elections, due on November 16th, unfolds smoothly. At the same time, the Foreign Ministry has announced it analyses the Central Election Bureau’s statement, according to which the responsibility for setting up new polling stations abroad falls on the Foreign Ministry. The Foreign Ministry, however, says that the Election Bureau’s previous decisions did not lead to this conclusion. On Saturday, President Traian Basescu asked again for the Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean’ resignation, whom he accuses of having misinformed the public opinion on which institution has the right to open new polling stations outside the country. On November 2nd, during the first round of the presidential elections, hundreds of Romanians queued for hours outside numerous polling stations in Europe, but even so, many of them did not manage to cast their vote. Ahead of the second round of elections, due on November 16, authorities have taken measures to better organise elections abroad and have increased the number of poling booths and voting stamps. On Saturday, in Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara and several other cities protests were staged is support of the Romanians abroad. Protesters chanted slogans against the Government and the Foreign Ministry, seen as responsible for the improper manner in which voting unfolded at some of the 294 polling stations abroad. Similar protests have been announced for Sunday. The first round of presidential elections left only two candidates in the race for the highest office: the Social Democrat Victor Ponta and the Liberal Klaus Iohannis.
The fall of the Berlin Wall showed that we have the power to shape our destiny and make things better, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, noting that people in Ukraine, Syria , Iraq and elsewhere around the world should feel heartened by the example of the walls sudden demise. These statements were made on the occasion of Sunday’s celebration of 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. “It was a victory of freedom over bondage and its a message of faith for todays, and future, generations that can tear down the walls – the walls of dictators, violence and ideologies,” Chancellor Merkel has said. In November 1989, after several weeks of large-scale protests in East Germany, the communist regime made the surprising announcement that citizens were free to travel abroad and, several hours later, border police in East Berlin, taken by surprise by the huge wave of people, opened the wall who, for 28 years, had separated East and West Germany. The fall of the Berlin Wall prefaced Germany’s reunification as well as the reunification of Europe.
The Catalans’ goal is to vote for independence within a definitive referendum, just like citizens in Scotland or Quebec, head of the Catalan government, Artur Mas has said. On Sunday, the people of Catalonia, a region with 7.5 million inhabitants in northeastern Spain, were asked to vote in an informal poll on independence. Spains constitutional court suspended earlier plans for a referendum on secession, as the constitution does not allow regions to hold referendums on matters that concern all Spaniards.
London hosts as of Sunday a new edition of the ATP Champions Tour. Romania’s representative in the competition is Horia Tecau who will play in the men’s doubles alongside Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer. On Monday, Tecau and Rojer will be up against the team made up of Bruno Soares of Brazil and Alexander Peya of Austria. We remind you that Romanian Simona Halep came out second in this year’s WTA Champions Tour in Singapore.
