June 30-July 6, 2024

A look at the main headline-making events this past week

Roxana Vasile, 06.07.2024, 12:52

Finally, an election calendar !

On three consecutive Sundays, Romanians will be called to the polls. The first round of the presidential elections will be held on November 24. On December 1, on Romania’s National Day, voters will elect their representatives in the country’s two-chamber Parliament. And the series of elections will end on December 8 with the second round of the presidential elections. These data were confirmed, on Thursday, by a Government Decision, after new discussions, on the same day, in the ruling PSD-PNL coalition, but also after talks that the Social-Democratic prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, had early in the week, with all political parties represented in Parliament. The parties blamed the Prime Minister for Government blockage on this matter.

More precisely, at the beginning of the year, PSD and PNL announced a complete calendar for all four rounds of elections this year. The local and European parliamentary elections were set for June 9. The presidential elections – as the Social Democrats and the Liberals had agreed – should have taken place on September 15. The Liberals, however, changed their mind. “Organizing the presidential elections earlier, in September, although they always took place in November-December, had a logic determined by the optimism of the country’s president” – writes Deutsche Welle. “Klaus Iohannis was hoping for a top seat in one of the institutions of the European Union or NATO. Had the scenario been positive, he would have taken office in the fall. In the meantime, it has become useless to advance the presidential election, and it would be very uncomfortable for Iohannis to spend the last three months with another president-elect who keeps watching the clock, anxious to take their place.”

Moreover, analysts say the Social Democrats would have wanted to take advantage of the good score obtained in the June 9 election, so they would have had an advantage in presidential elections held in September. However, the Liberals feared that their leader, Nicolae Ciucă, could miss the second round, so they supported the option for the presidential elections to take place towards the end of the year.

ʺThe Soul Generation”

Romania will collect 12,250,000 euros for its participation in the EURO 2024 European Football Championship, held in Germany, where it stopped, on Tuesday, in the round of 16. The presence in the first phase of the competition won the tricolours 9,250,000 euros, just like the other selected participating teams. The Romanians collected 1 million euros for the victory against Ukraine (3-0) in the debut match and 500,000 euros after the draw with Slovakia (1-1). The Romanian footballers lost 3-0 to the Belgians, but even so, they finished first in their group. Their qualification for the next stage brought the Romanian Football Federation 1,500,000 euros. Although in round of 16 of EURO 2024 it was defeated by the Netherlands 3-0, the Romanian team, nicknamed the “The Soul Generation “, left with their heads held high, cheered by the Romanian fans present in impressive numbers in Germany, by their supporters back home, but also by the many foreign football lovers who appreciated their sporting performance.

The Romanians returned home on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, greeted by fans dressed in yellow shirts and waving tricolour flags – the national team had not participated in a final tournament in 8 years and had not gone beyond the group stage in a final tournament in 24 years. But before leaving Germany, the Romanian team gave another lesson in civility that quickly went viral online – after the match with the Netherlands they left an impeccably clean locker and a written message thanking the hosts. UEFA published a photo on its official Twitter account, calling the Romanians “the perfect guests”.

National Evaluation and Baccalaureate

For the Romanian children in the final grades, this week has been a difficult one. The 8th graders received the results of the National Evaluation that counts for high school enrolment. For the fifth year in a row, students’ grades were confidential. To see them, every 8th grade graduate had to enter a code received at school in a specially created portal. According to the Minister of Education, Ligia Deca, almost 153 thousand candidates took part in the National Evaluation. The results obtained were the weakest in the last three years: about 74% of the children got averages higher than or equal to 5, the passing grade in Romania. They had greater difficulties in mathematics than in the Romanian language. On the other hand, also this week, 12th graders sat for the written baccalaureate exams. The results will be posted on Monday, when appeals can also be submitted. The final results will be announced on July 12.

The summer season of mega-shows

The port-city of Constanta, on the Romanian Black Sea Coast, on Thursday saw the start of the biggest musical festival in Europe held on a beach – the NEVERSEA 2024 festival. Until July 7, every evening, tens of thousands of fans from the country and abroad can enjoy performances by 100 top Romanian and foreign artists, including Inna, Maluma, Nick Carter, G-Eazy, Bebe Rexha, DJ Snake, Dimitri Vegas, Steve Aoki, Mahmut Orhan or Salvatore Ganacci. In parallel with NEVERSEA, another electronic music festival – SAGA – is taking place near Bucharest, at the Romaero airport, this weekend. The organizers set up seven stages, a club in a disused plane and light shows in the control tower. SAGA enjoys the presence of famous artists also, such as Nicki Minaj, Rita Ora, Armin Van Buuren, Dennis Lloyd and Hardwell. (MI)