October 5, 2015
A roundup of domestic and international news.
Newsroom, 05.10.2015, 12:00
POLITICAL DISPUTE – In Romania, the Liberal MPs have gone on a token strike on Monday, targeting the adoption of postal voting. The Liberals say the Social Democrats, the largest party in the government coalition, keep avoiding debates on this bill, while in turn the Social Democrats criticize the Liberals for not promoting the bill while they held the presidency of the Election Code Committee. Insistently demanded by the Romanian Diaspora and seen by the entire political class as a solution to prevent a situation like last year’s one, when tens of thousands queued for hours in order to cast their votes in the presidential election, the law on postal voting has not been adopted yet.
MIGRANT CRISIS – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is today traveling to Brussels for high-level talks on the migrant crisis. Turkey is hosting at least 2 million Syrian refugees and is the main starting point for the exodus of refugees to Europe, via the Mediterranean Sea. According to the UN, around 5 thousand Syrian refugees reach Greece every day coming from Turkey. At the latest UN emergency summit in Brussels, the heads of state and government agreed on a financial aid package for the countries neighboring Syria, including Turkey, aimed at stopping migrants from flooding into Europe. Also, the EU has asked for Turkey’s approval to patrol its coast area to fight people smugglers. Turks are still waiting for visa liberalization to ease their travel to Europe and Turkish officials are worried about the growing anti-Muslim rhetoric in Europe.
CONFLICT IN SYRIA – French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius today said that air strikes in Syria must target Islamic State militants but also other groups “considered as terrorists,” such as Al-Qaida. Islamic State blew out the famous Triumphal Arch in Palmira, after having destroyed several ancient temples in the region in August, actions that the UN sees as war crimes. On the other hand, Moscow has announced it carried out more than 20 air raids in Syria and hit 10 targets in the last 24 hours alone. In their turn, the United States and their allies have announced they carried out 16 air strikes against extremists in Syria and Iraq. They denounced, however, the fact that Russia’s air strikes in Syria also target the opponents of President Bashar al Assad. Several NGOs have reported that 39 civilians and 14 Jihadists have been killed since the start of the Russian offensive.
MILITARY DRILL – For a whole month 36 thousand NATO military, Romanians included, are taking part in the alliance’s most extensive drill in 13 years. The manoeuvers will take place simultaneously in areas in Italy, Portugal, Spain, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediteranean Sea, Canada, Norway, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. The military exercise is aimed at strengthening its response capacity to present and future challenges. The manouvers are held against tensions between NATO and Russia on the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria and also against the background of the refugee crisis.
ECONOMIC FORECAST – The World Bank has cut its growth forecast for the Asia Pacific region for this year and next, because of the risks posed by a sharp slowdown in China and raising US interest rates, the BBC reports. The bank now expects growth in developing East Asia and the Pacific to be 6.5% this year and 6.4% in 2016, down from an earlier forecast of 6.7%. The latest estimate is even lower than growth of 6.8% last year. The International Monetary Fund also flagged in September that slowing growth in the worlds second largest economy posed a threat to the global economy.
ELECTIONS – The Portuguese Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, has announced he is prepared to form a new government, after the country’s governing centre-right coalition won the general election. However, four years of austerity have taken their toll, and the coalition lost almost one-third of the votes that its two constituent parties gleaned in the last general election. On the other hand, parties to the left of the Socialists achieved their best-ever result, the BBC reports. Under these circumstances, the center-right coalition needs the support of its main rival, the Socialist Party.
FOOTBALL – We go out with the latest from domestic football. Romania’s national team manager Anghel Iordanescu has summoned eight footballers currently playing in the domestic championship, for the national team’s last fixtures counting towards EURO 2016 preliminaries, the games against Finland and the Faeroe Islands. Romania ranks 2nd in the preliminary Group F with 16 points, after Northern Ireland, which has 17 points but ahead of Hungary, which has 13 points.
