June 28, 2021

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 28.06.2021, 13:55

Covid-19. Romania saw 37 new coronavirus
infections today, with 17 of Romania’s 41 counties recording no new case, while
one only related death was recorded in the previous 24 hours. 86 Covid patients
are in intensive care. So far, almost 4.7 million Romanians have been given at
least one dose of the Covid vaccine, accounting for 25% of the country’s
eligible population. A further easing of coronavirus restrictions has been
announced for 1st July.

Elections. Local by-elections took
place on Sunday in six cities and 30 villages around Romania, where the voter
turnout was over 50%. Some of the mayor seats remained vacant after the winners
of last September’s elections passed away, gave up their mayor seats to stand
for Parliament or had problems with the law. The Social Democratic Party in
opposition won the largest number of mayor seats, namely 18, another 14 went to
the ruling coalition formed by the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania
Union-PLUS Alliance and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, 3
went to independent candidates and one to the People’s Movement Party. The
interior ministry said 10 persons are currently investigated for possible
criminal acts, including voter corruption, electoral fraud, voter suppression
and breach of voting secrecy.

No-confidence motion. The two-chamber Parliament
in Bucharest will vote on Tuesday on the first no-confidence motion filed by
the Social Democratic opposition against the coalition government. The
initiators of the motion accuse the government led by Liberal Florin Cîţu of
inefficiency, of taking the country into the wrong direction, and of pushing
the country’s economy to the brink of disaster and blame it for the drop in
living standards. The failure of the vaccination campaign and of the National
Recovery and Resilience Plan are also on the list of complaints. The prime
minister described the accusations as unfounded, while the leader of the
National Liberal Party Ludovic Orban said the coalition decided that its MPs
would attend the debates but would not vote on the motion.

Baccalaureate. Over 130,000 pupils who graduated
years 12 and 13 are today standing the first test of their baccalaureate exams,
namely in the Romanian language and literature. Education minister Sorin
Cîmpeanu said only 77% of pupils who finished high school this year are
planning to take the exams, fewer than last year. Like last year, the
baccalaureate will only consist of written tests, because of the coronavirus
pandemic. The results will be published between 5th and 9th
July. A second session of the baccalaureate exam will take place in the second
half of August.

Moldova. The Republic of Moldova marks the 81st anniversary of Bessarabia’s annexation by the Soviet Union on 28th June 1940. Following an ultimatum to Bucharest, the Russian troops annexed Bessarabia, northern Bukovina and Hertsa region, all of which had majority Romanian ethnic population. Radio Chişinău recalls that this move led to the installation of a totalitarian communist regime that saw forced seizure of land and property, the replacement of the Latin alphabet with the Cyrillic alphabet, political repression and deportations. Tens of thousands of people were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia, many of whom died on the way or in USSR camps. The territories annexed in 1940 today form part of the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Ukraine, which became independent from Moscow in August 1991.

Euro 2020. Almost 27,000 fans, accounting for
half of the stadium’s seats, will be watching tonight’s match between world
champions France and Switzerland in the last 16 of the European Football
Championship. The match is taking place on Bucharest’s National Arena, one of
the different venues around the continent hosting the tournament this year.
This is the last game to be hosted by Bucharest, which also saw all Group C matches. Also today, Croatia are facing Spain in Copenhagen. On
Sunday in other last 16 matches, the Czech Republic defeated The Netherlands
2-nil and defending European champions Portugal lost to Belgium nil-1. In two
of the quarterfinal draws known so far, Italy will play Belgium and the Czech
Republic will play Denmark. (CM)