May 10, 2015 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 10.05.2015, 19:29
King’s Day was marked in Bucharest on Sunday with a marathon around Herastrau Park, a ceremony at the statue of King Carol I in the Palace Square and a special concert at the Romanian Athenaeum. Radio Romania celebrated the event on Friday with a Royal Concert and the launch of an album called “May 10th. The Royal House of Romania in radio programmes between 1930-1944”. May 10th marks three major events in Romania’s modern history. On May 10th, 1866, prince Carol, of the German family Hohenzollern–Sigmaringen, was sworn in as ruler of Romania, founding the dynasty that King Mihai I belongs to. On May 10th, 1877, Carol I proclaimed Romania’s independence from the Ottoman Empire, and four years later he was crowned King of Romania. May 10th was Romania’s national holiday until the communists came to power in 1947, forcing Mihai I to leave the throne and the country. King Mihai returned to Romania after the December 1989 revolution, which ended the communist regime. In an interview to Radio Romania, he urged the Romanian people to have faith in the future. Last month, the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest voted that May 10 would be an official holiday in Romania.
The Government of Romania has notified the National Anti-Corruption Directorate on suspected offences related to the harvesting and sale of wood, further to several inspections conducted at various forestry directorates in the country as well as at the Romsilva National Forestry Company. According to a report of the Prime Minister’s control corps, the irregularities date back to years 2009 to 2012. On Saturday several thousand people protested in Bucharest and around the country against abusive deforestation. The participants demanded that authorities should endorse legislation to protect the forests. President Klaus Iohannis also announced on Saturday that the issue of illegal deforestation would be included in the agenda of the forthcoming meeting of the Supreme Defence Council. The draft Forestry Code sent back by the President to Parliament will be discussed on Tuesday by the specialised committee of the Chamber of Deputies. PM Victor Ponta said in his turn that if the Forestry Code was endorsed and promulgated, it would provide stronger instruments to fight those who abuse their market position and encourage excessive deforestation.
The Delegate Minister for relations with the Romanians living abroad, Angel Tîlvăr, who was on a two-day visit to neighbouring Ukraine, took part on Sunday in the opening of the Romanian Cultural Centre in Cernauti. Tîlvăr said this would help the members of the Romanian community in Bucovina to rediscover and preserve the beauty of the Romanian culture. Attending the event were also officials and cultural personalities from Romania, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.
The Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel discussed with the Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Ukrainian crisis, in Moscow on Sunday. We have learned from bitter experiences and difficult situations, and today we must overcome such a situation by peaceful, diplomatic means, Merkel said, speaking about the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Vladimir Putin emphasised that, since the signing of the Minsk agreements on February 12th, the situation in Ukraine has calmed down, although problems still linger. On the other hand, Putin said the Russian-German relations are seeing a difficult period and called for a quick settlement of these problems. Russia’s trade with its main economic partner in Europe dropped by 6.5% last year, because of the international sanctions against Moscow for its involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. The Radio Romania correspondent in Moscow mentions that, like many other Western leaders, the German Chancellow boycotted Saturday’s military parade staged in Moscow to celebrate 70 years since the Allies’ victory in World War II.
The Romanian-Indian pair Florin Mergea and Rohan Bopanna won on Sunday the doubles final of the Madrid tennis tournament, worth 4.2 million euros. They defeated Marcin Matkowski (Poland) / Nenad Zimonjic (Serbia). For Mergea, no 19th in the ATP doubles ranking, this is the best performance of his career.
