September 6, 2021

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 06.09.2021, 13:55

Talks. Romanian president Klaus Iohannis is meeting prime minister
Florin Cîțu today to discuss the government crisis. On Saturday, he called on
the Save Romania Union and PLUS Alliance to resume dialogue within the
coalition and to find a viable and rational solution to unblock the situation.
The president criticised the Alliance for its possible association with the
Alliance for the Union of Romanians, a party considered extremist and
anti-western, accusing it of betraying the will of the people who placed their
hopes in a centre-right coalition for the development of their country. Also
today, Parliament’s standing bureaus are meeting to discuss the timetable for
debating and discussing the no-confidence motion filed by the Save Romania
Union and PLUS Alliance, in the ruling coalition, and the opposition Alliance
for the Union of Romanians. The former say they want to remain in the coalition
with the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians
in Romania, but that they no longer support Florin Cîțu as prime minister. The
Alliance for the Union of Romanians says the motion seeks to bring down the
current government and that it will join forces neither with the Social
Democratic Party, the main opposition party, nor with the Save Romania Union
and PLUS Alliance. The Social Democrats for the moment gave up filing their own
no-confidence motion and say that if the current motion is put to the vote,
they will vote in favour. The liberal leadership reiterated their support for Cîțu but called for the resumption of dialogue in the coalition. The
Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania also called for
responsibility, saying no other government formula is possible at the moment.

Diplomacy. The foreign ministers of
the Republic of Moldova, Greece, Italy and India are the special guests of this
year’s edition of the Annual Meeting of the Romanian Diplomacy which is getting
under way tomorrow in Bucharest. Participants will discuss the role of
diplomacy to consolidate Romania’s resilience. The event, which is
traditionally held by the foreign ministry around the date of Romanian
Diplomacy Day, is held this time online. It brings together the heads of
Romania’s diplomatic missions and consular offices abroad and its special guests will include the vice-president of the European Commission for Democracy
and Demography Dubravka Šuica and the Secretary
General of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe Helga Schmid.

Death. Romania lost two well-known
public figures on Sunday: actor Ion Caramitru, currently the director of the
National Theatre in Bucharest and a former minister of culture and president of
the Romanian theatre union. He was also one of the best known figures of the
Romanian communist revolution of 1989. He passed away, aged 79, only hours
after former rowing Olympic champion Ivan Patzaichin, aged 71. Patzaichin
took part in five Olympic Games, winning 5 medals, and also had 22 world
titles. We are saying goodbye to two of the most beloved Romanians, wrote
president Klaus Iohannis on Facebook.

Tennis. The Romanian-German pair Horia Tecău and Kevin Krawietz reached
the men’s doubles quarterfinals at the US Open after defeating the
Mexican-Argentinean pair Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni. Tecău and Krawietz,
who are seeded sixth, will next be facing Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey of the
US. In the women’s doubles, Raluca Olaru of Romania and Nadiia Kichenok of
Ukraine reached the last 16 after winning against Andrea Petkovic of Germany
and Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia. They will next be playing Alexa Guarachi of
Chile and Desirae Krawczyk of the US. The all-Romanian pair Monica Niculescu and
Gabriela Ruse are today facing Leylah Fernandez of Canada and Erin Routliff of
New Zealand in the last 16. Romania has no player in the singles competition,
after 12th seed Simona Halep lost to Elina Svitolina on Sunday. Halep
missed both Roland Garros and Wimbledon because of an injury.

Football. Romania defeated Liechtenstein 2-nil on Sunday in Bucharest
and went up to third place in World Cup qualifying group J, with 9 points. Romania
won their second consecutive victory in this qualifying campaign, after 2-nil
against Iceland away. On Wednesday, they will play North Macedonia in Skopje,
who are currently in fourth place. Germany top the group with 12 points,
followed by Armenia with 10. Winning the group means qualifying for the World
Cup, which will be hosted by Qatar, while the second-placed side will go into
play-offs. (CM)