December 16, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 16.12.2020, 20:00

Coronavirus
Romania. Almost 6,000 new coronavirus cases and 164 new deaths
were reported on Wednesday in Romania. Infections now pass 571,000, while the
death toll is 13,862. 1,267 people are in intensive care. The defence ministry
will deploy some 600 of its staff to Public Health Directorates across Romania to
help with general efforts to fight the pandemic in the coming period. The
military will be taking hotline calls, work on data bases and carry out contact
tracing activities. The Romanian authorities have recommended the population to
reduce travel during the winter holidays in order to contain the spread of the
virus. The first vaccines are expected in Romania between Christmas and
the New Year, with the first batch amounting to around 10,000 doses. Romania is
to receive some 600,000 doses in January, and the amount will increase from one
month to the next.

Negotiations. President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday signed the decree summoning the next
Parliament next Monday. Under the Constitution, the newly elected Parliament
meets at President’s request within 20 days of election day. The Chamber of
Deputies and the Senate are considered legally set up after the validation of
two thirds of the MP mandates and after MPs are sworn in. In another
development, the negotiations between the National Liberal Party, the USR-PLUS
Alliance and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania for the
formation of a centre-right coalition were again suspended on Tuesday after a
failed attempt to re-launch talks. The three parties continue to argue over the
distribution of the positions of prime minister and speakers of the Senate and
Chamber of Deputies. The Liberals say they have two proposals for Thursday’s
new round of talks: the president of the party Ludovic Orban for prime minister
and Florin Cîţu for Senate speaker or Ludovic Orban for speaker
of the Chamber of Deputies and Florin Cîţu as prime minister. The
Social Democratic Party threatens to boycott Monday’s meeting for the
validation of the new Parliament, to protest against the way in which the three
aforementioned parties are trying to distribute the key positions in Parliament
and the future government. The Social Democrats are convinced that the best
solution in the context of the pandemic is a national unity government that
would bring together all parliamentary parties. The nationalist Alliance for
the Union of Romania says it will attend the meeting and a boycott would be an
act of political irresponsibility.

Visit. Romania has been a constant and
firm supporter of the North-Atlantic aspirations of North Macedonia, being one
of the first allies to ratify its NATO accession protocol in February last
year, said Romania’s foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu on Wednesday. He held a
press conference together with his counterpart from North Macedonia, Bujar
Osmani, who was on an official trip to Romania. Aurescu reiterated his
country’s readiness to assist North Macedonia with the preparations to start EU
accession talks. Bujar Osmani thanked Bucharest for the support given to his
country and underlined that as a country in the immediate vicinity of the
Western Balkans, Romania is not only directly interested in the development
and European integration of its vicinity, but also has excellent knowledge of
the relations between the states in the region. The two officials also
discussed the stage and prospects of bilateral cooperation in all areas of
common interest, including the economic sector.

1989 Revolution. The municipality
and revolutionaries’ associations in Timişoara
(western Romania) are commemorating the 31st anniversary of the
Romanian anticommunist revolution of 1989. A meeting of the local council, with
US ambassador Adrian Zuckerman as guest of honour, opened the events to
remember the people who died. Thursday is a day of mourning in Timişoara, which became the first city free of
communism in Romania, after a regime that lasted 45 years. The uprising began
here on 16th December 1989 and spread, beginning on 21st
December, to Bucharest and other cities around the country. More than 1,000
people died and some 3,000 were wounded in the clashes that took place in
Romania, the only country in the former eastern bloc where the regime change
was achieved through bloodshed and where the communist leaders were executed.
President Klaus Iohannis said young people must know the truth about the
communist regime and cherish the sacrifice of those killed by bullets in
December 1989.

Statistics.
The turnover from market services rendered to the population in the first ten
months of the year in Romania dropped by around 33% compared to the same period
last year, according to a report published by the National Institute for
Statistics on Wednesday. Travel agencies saw the biggest drop, their activity
being reduced by almost a half. Gambling and recreational activities also saw a
big drop, at 35%. Hair salons and auto repair services were less affected,
their activity only dropping by less than 10%. On the other hand, the sales of
motorcycles almost doubled during this period.