November 28, 2016

The Romanian Academy marks through solemn meeting the Great Union and the country's participation in WW1.

Newsroom, 28.11.2016, 12:00

MIGRANTS – The Romanian border police have caught six Iraqi citizens, four adults and two children, who passed Romania’s border illegally, through Bulgaria, on foot, in an attempt to reach Germany. The migrants were helped to cross the border with Romania by four Bulgarian citizens, who entered the country legally by car, and are now in police custody. The Iraqi citizens will be taken over by the Bulgarian authorities, in keeping with the Romanian-Bulgarian protocol.

DEFENSE – Romania’s Supreme Defense Council convenes on Tuesday in Bucharest to discuss, among other things, operations carried out outside the country’s borders in 2017 and the stage of implementation of the countrys national defence strategy for 2015-2019. Also approached will be measures taken by Romania with a view to implementing the sanctions imposed internationally between October 2015 and September 2016, as well as Romania’s medium and long term relationship with Moldova, whose president is now the pro-Russian Igor Dodon. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has said that Bucharest plans to further support Chisinau in spite of this new context.

CORRUPTION- Romania’s Chamber of deputies is today voting on the anti-corruption prosecutors’ request to start the prosecution of the Parliament member Eugen Bejinariu. A former general secretary of the Government between 2003 and 2004, Bejinariu has been accused by prosecutors of abuse of office in the Microsoft 2 case. The damage in this case, which also involves former ministers and two former directors of Microsoft Romania, exceeds 67 million dollars.

ACADEMY – The Romanian Academy is today marking, through a solemn meeting, the Great Union and Romania’s participation in WW1. Attending are President Klaus Iohannis, wo will deliver a speech on this occasion, as well as Princess Margareta, custodian of the Romanian Crown and Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church. 1st of December 1918 remains a symbol for the union of all Romanians. Declared an official holiday after the anti-communist revolution of 1989, 1st of December marks the completion, at the end of WW1, of the creation of the Romanian nation state following the union of all provinces with majority Romanian populations, that had been part of multinational empires, under Bucharest’s authority.

ELECTION – Francois Fillon, the socially conservative former prime minister has won the primary race to become the presidential candidate of the French right wing next spring. Fillon, 62, gained support in the final days of the primary race after writing a book on the dangers of “Islamic totalitarianism”. Fillon thus defeated the more moderate centrist, Alain Jupe, the 71-year-old mayor of Bordeaux. A fervent Catholic, Fillon has a very liberal programme in terms of economy and a very conservative one when it comes to social issues. Fillon sees Russia as an ally in the fight against ISIS.

HANDBALL – In the Carpati Trophy final, hosted by the central Transylvanian city of Cluj Napoca, Romania sustained a 29-24 defeat by Hungary. The fixture was also the last match for Aurelia Bradeanu, who will retire from competition. Scoring most of Romania’s goals was Eliza Buceschi, 5, while for Hungarys Kinga Klivinyi was the top scorer, with 10 goals.

(Translated by Elena Enache)