September 7, 2021

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Newsroom, 07.09.2021, 13:55

CRISIS In Romania, deputy PM Dan Barna and the other USR PLUS ministers resigned on Tuesday from the Liberal Florin Citus coalition cabinet, as they had announced on Monday night. USR PLUS believe the PM dynamited the coalition after unexpectedly dismissing the justice minister Stelian Ion. The party is invited to have talks with president Klaus Iohannis this afternoon, to discuss the governmental crisis. On Friday, USR PLUS and the nationalist party AUR tabled a no-confidence motion against the Citu cabinet. The standing bureaus of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies convene today in a new attempt to agree on a timetable for the motion.

BUDGET In spite of the resignation of the USR PLUS ministers, PM Florin Citu has convened a cabinet meeting today, to discuss a new budget adjustment. The Prime Minister announced last night that the budget adjustment bill would be passed whether or not USR PLUS party pulls out of the government coalition. With todays adjustment, most funds will go to the health ministry, public finances, development and investments. Budget cuts will affect the labour ministry, the Senate and the Court of Accounts.

DIPLOMACY Bucharest is hosting as of today the Annual Meeting of Romanian Diplomats, which brings together the heads of Romanias diplomatic missions and consular offices abroad. The meeting is chaired by the foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu. The main topic of this years meeting is the concept of resilience, which gains importance in the context of the pandemic-related crisis. The Romanian diplomats will also discuss ways to concentrate their efforts on emerging developments like climate change, digital transition, the growing role of new technologies and cyber security. The Romanian diplomacy chief Bogdan Aurescu has talks scheduled today with his Moldovan counterpart, Nicolae Popescu, who is also taking part in the meeting. The bilateral talks focus on strengthening Romanias support for the reforms implemented by the new government in Chişinău and for Moldovas EU accession efforts.

VISIT The president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, will be on an official visit to Switzerland on Thursday, at the invitation of his counterpart Guy Parmelin. According to the presidency, the visit takes place in the context of this years anniversary of 110 years of diplomatic relations between the two states. The talks will focus on strengthening bilateral cooperation, including economic cooperation, with an emphasis on investments. Switzerland is the 10th-largest foreign investor in Romania.

COVID-19 The number of new Covid-19 infections remains high in Romania, with 1,035 new cases reported on Monday out of around 18,000 tests. The frequency of cases for the past 14 days has reached or gone over 1 per thousand in Bucharest and 4 other counties. Over the past 24 hours, 25 patients died. The number of hospitalised patients is over 3,300, 405 of them in intensive care. Of the patients in hospitals, 107 are under 18, and 5 of them are in ICU. Over 8,000 people have received a vaccine in the last 24 hours, but the total number of fully immunised people is nearly 5.2 million, still less than one-third of the total eligible population.

US OPEN The Romanians Monica Niculescu/Gabriela Ruse qualified in the quarter-finals of the doubles competition at US Open, the last Grand Slam of the year, after defeating Leylah Fernandez (Canada)/Erin Routliff (New Zealand). The Romanians are next to take on Alexa Guarachi (Chile)/ Desirae Krawczyk (USA), who beat Raluca Olaru (Romania)/Nadia Kicenok (Ukraine). In the mens doubles, Horia Tecău (Romania) / Kevin Krawietz (Germany), seed no. 6, are playing today in the quarter-finals against the Americans Steve Johnson/Sam Querrey. (tr. A.M. Popescu)