December 20, 2015 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 20.12.2015, 12:30
The city of Timisoara in Western Romania on Sunday was celebrating ’Victory Day’ marking the events 26 years ago when it became Romania’s first city free of communism. After four days of protests, starting December 16th, which left scores of dead and wounded, the army joined the population and the protesters laid the foundations of the first democratic political platform. Sparked off by protests put up by the people in Timisoara against the abusive measures of the local authorities, the Revolution rapidly extended to all Romanian cities and climaxed in the ousting of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Over 1,000 people died and nearly 3,400 were wounded between December 16th and 25th 1989. Romania was the only country in the former Soviet bloc with a violent overthrow of the government and where the communist leaders were executed. Parliament in Romania is to convene on December 21st for a solemn session to mark 26 years since the revolts of 1989.
The national women’s handball side of Romania on Sunday won the bronze medal at the world championship in Denmark. The Romanians clinched a 31-22 win against Poland and have stepped onto the third step of the podium. Our handballers had lost 35-33 their semifinals game against the defending Olympic and European champions Norway in the extra time. We recall that Romania came tenth in the World Championship in Serbia in 2013 but it is the only team to have participated in all World Championships since 1957. They won a gold medal in 1962 and two silver, in 1973 and 2005 respectively.
Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu will be seeing his Polish counterpart Witold Waszczykowski in Bucharest on Monday. According to a Foreign Ministry communiqué, the two ministers will mainly tackle bilateral relations. They will be signing a new Romanian-Polish action plan for the period 2016-2020, included in the Bilateral Strategic Partnership. Topical issues from the European and international agenda will also be discussed by the two officials, the same communiqué also says.
Central and East-European countries, which do not accept refugees under the bloc’s quota programme, could be facing sanctions, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an interview to German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have voted against the relocation plan of 160 thousand migrants, but the scheme eventually got approved. After the November attacks in Paris, Poland said it would not accept more refugees. During the winter European Council in Brussels, Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos reiterated Romania’s solidarity with the EU in the migration file, but said that Bucharest has conditions, such as strengthening the community’s capability of monitoring migrant inflows and assuring a functional Schengen zone. Over 990 thousand migrants have entered Europe since the beginning of 2015.
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis is leading in an INSCOP ranking on trusting public figures in Romania. He is followed by National Bank governor, Mugur Isarescu and Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos. According to the poll, 60% of the Romanians say they trust their president, while the Central Bank governor comes next with slightly over 40% and Prime Minister Ciolos with 32%. 30% of the interviewees has expressed trust in Romania’s ambassador in the USA George Maior, while Mihai Razvan-Ungureanu, head of the Romanian Intelligence Service comes next with 22%. The poll was conducted between November 26th and December 2nd.
