September 4, 2021

A news roundup

Newsroom, 04.09.2021, 15:05

Motion – The Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, said on Saturday that the new alliance made up of the Save Romania Union- PLUS – USR PLUS Alliance, a member of the ruling coalition, and the ultranationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians – AUR, is an insult to the Romanian people. He called on USR PLUS to put an end to these political gestures, which he described as irresponsible, to respect their voters and to return to dialogue, in order to find a viable and rational solution with the Coalition partners to unblock the current situation. The head of state says that, by making an alliance with a party that does not respect the western values, USR PLUS betrays the will of the citizens who put their hopes in a center-right coalition that promised to develop Romania. Undermining the Coalition and compromising the entire reform package assumed through the government program risks throwing Romania into a deep economic and social crisis, the president warned. MPs from the USR PLUS and AUR on Friday tabled a censure motion against the cabinet led by the Liberal Florin Citu, after his refusal to resign and after the National Liberal Party – PNL refused to withdraw their political support for the PM. USR PLUS had requested the departure of the PM Florin Citu, whom they accused of cynicism and ill-will, after he unexpectedly dismissed the Justice Minister, Stelian Ion, representing USR, because he had blocked a large financing plan for the local infrastructure. The prime minister said that the only governing solution for Romania is the current coalition, an opinion shared by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania – UDMR, the third partner in the governing coalition. The timetable for the censure motion will be set on Monday.

Afghanistan — The inter-institutional crisis cell managed to obtain, on Saturday, the evacuation from Afghanistan of 45 Afghan citizens, magistrates and their families, the Romanian foreign minister, Bogdan Aurescu announced at the Black Sea and the Balkans Security Forum, which takes place in Bucharest. The head of the Romanian diplomacy pointed out that another 11 Afghan citizens – judges, physicians and journalists – were evacuated from Kabul with the support of the Romanian state. All in all, the Romanian authorities contributed to the evacuation of 61 Afghan citizens, in addition to the 49 Romanian citizens and 7 citizens of the partner states. On the other hand, President Klaus Iohannis on Friday had a phone conversation about Afghanistan with the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “Romania remains concerned about the serious situation in Afghanistan and is ready to contribute to NATOs efforts to address this crisis. Allied unity is essential. Afghanistan must not become a safe haven for terrorists again, “Klaus Iohannis wrote on Twitter. In his turn, the NATO secretary general wrote on Twitter that he discussed with the Romanian president and the prime ministers of the Netherlands and Spain about the developments in Afghanistan. “NATO allies will continue to bring people to safety, and we remain determined and united against international terrorism,” Stoltenberg wrote.

Tennis — The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, seed no. 12, has qualified to the eighth finals of the US Open, the last grand slam tournament of the year, after she defeated, in 3 sets, on Friday, the Kazakh Elena Ribakina, ranked 20th in the WTA classification. On Sunday, Halep will play for a place in the quarterfinals against the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, ranked 5th in the WTA classification. Svitolina passed, in the third round, the Russian Daria Kasatkina. The score of the matches between the two is equal, 5-5. Simona Haleps best performance at the US Open is the semifinal played in 2015.

Covid-19 – Against the backdrop of a low vaccination rate in Romania, the number of infections continues to grow. On Saturday, 1,568 new cases and 28 deaths were reported. 358 patients are hospitalized in ICUs. Less than 11,000 people have been vaccinated, 8,000 with the first or single dose in the last 24 hours. All in all, 5.1 million people have been fully vaccinated, which means less than a third of the eligible population.

List – A new list of countries with an epidemiological risk, published by the National Committee for Emergency Situations in Romania, takes effect on Sunday. Spain moves out of the red list and gets into the yellow list, while Austria moves from the green list to the yellow one following the increase in the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate. Israel, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey and Portugal are still in the red zone, and the Netherlands and Bulgaria remain on the yellow list. (LS)