The Week in Review (17-23 November 2019)

A roundup of the main stories in Romania this week.

România Internațional, 23.11.2019, 14:00

Romania is holding the second round of the presidential elections

This was the last week of the election
campaign for the presidential elections in Romania. On Sunday, November the 24th,
Romanians will find out who their president will be for the next five years. In
the race are the incumbent president Klaus Iohannis, who is backed by the
ruling National Liberal Party, and Viorica Dancila, the leader of the Social
Democratic Party, in power until recently. Just like in the first round of
voting, Romanian citizens living abroad have three days to cast their ballots.
This measure and others were taken so as to prevent the long queues seen in the
previous presidential elections in 2014 and the European elections last May. To
eliminate the risk of overcrowding at polling stations, their number in the
diaspora has basically doubled compared with the European elections, to reach
835. The same number of polling stations has been maintained for the second
round, but the location of some of them has been moved for objective reasons.
The countries with the largest number of polling stations are Spain, Italy,
Germany, the UK and France. In Romania, the voting process only takes place on
Sunday, on the 24th of November.

The Romanian currency hits record low against the euro

The Romanian currency, the leu, has
this week gone over the psychological threshold to reach 4.78 for one euro,
hitting a record low against the European single currency. The leu has been
depreciating for some two and a half months. The exchange rate we’ve seen
recently is a reflection of the Romanian economy, the spokesman of the National
Bank of Romania Dan Suciu has told Radio Romania. He has explained that growing
imports and the trade deficit implicitly are the main cause for the
depreciation of the leu.
At the beginning of the month, the governor of the National Bank of Romania
Mugur Isarescu was saying that these variations are minor compared with those
of the Hungarian forint and the Polish zloty, which have seen very much bigger
fluctuations. Specialists expect the national currency to depreciate even
further next year. A strong euro in relation to the leu means a chain of price
hikes, from higher interest rates on loans in euros to higher utility bills and
more expensive homes.

The hearings of the 27
Commissioners-designate, officially closed

The vote on the
investiture of the new European Commission, headed by Ursula von der Leyen,
will be held during the plenary session of the European Parliament on November
27 in Strasbourg, the president of the European Parliament David Sassoli
announced on Thursday. The Conference of Presidents, made up of the Parliament
president and the political group leaders, Thursday concluded the hearings of
the 26 Commissioners-designate and gave the green light for the last procedure
required before the new Commission can start its work on December 1, one month
later than originally scheduled. The Commission needs a majority of votes to be
validated. On Monday, parliament’s committee on foreign affairs approved the
candidacy of Oliver Varhelyi, put forth by Hungary for the Enlargement
Commissioner post. On November 14, the relevant specialist committees also
approved the candidates nominated by Romania and France: Adina Valean for
Transport Commissioner and Thierry Breton for Internal Market Commissioner.

New US Ambassador to Romania

The New
York-based lawyer Adrian Zuckerman will be the new US Ambassador to Romania,
replacing Hans Klemm. Zuckerman was confirmed on Wednesday by the US Senate, by
a 65-30 vote. Zuckerman immigrated to the US from Romania at the age of 10 and
speaks fluent Romanian. In 1984, he was admitted to the New York Bar. A member
of the Real Estate Board of New York and also involved in education and charity
work, Adrian Zuckerman is a member of the Kids Corp Board and of the New York
Law School alumni association.

Radio Romania Gaudeamus Book Fair

The 26th Gaudeamus Book
fair organised by Radio Romania is coming to an end on Sunday. This year’s
edition is dedicated to the
anti-communist revolution of December 1989. Initiated by Radio Romania a
quarter of a century ago concurrently with the Gaudeamus Book for Learning fair, the Radio
Romania Gaudeamus project has become a landmark of the local book market. Its
programme has expanded constantly since its inception, today featuring 116
exhibition-type events and 13,600 different activities and attracting more than
3 million visitors. The current edition features 900 editorial and professional
events and brings together over 250 exhibitors. The poet Mircea Dinescu, an
outspoken opponent of the dictatorial regime, and the actor Ion Caramitru, both
of whom were emblematic figures of the Revolution, are the honorary
co-presidents this year. The fair hands out three Gaudeamus trophies and a book
of the year award, all of them based on the public’s vote. The excellence prize
will be awarded to one of the publishing houses taking part in the fair and is
meant to finance, either fully or partly, an editorial project of national
importance and with international recognition. Other prizes include a
translation award and an education award, among others.