April 28, 2024 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 28.04.2024, 19:00

PALM SUNDAY. Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Christians around the world, Romania included, celebrated Palm Sunday, recalling the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem for the last time before being crucified. The faithful who participated in Sunday’s Liturgy received willow branches consecrated through a special prayer, said by the priests at the end of the service in memory of Jesus’ entering Jerusalem greeted by people waving palm branches. In Romania, the celebration is called Florii, meaning ‘of flowers’, and some 1.8 million Romanians celebrate their name day this Sunday. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the last week of Easter Lent. During Passion Week, Christians will get ready to welcome the great celebration of the Savior’s Resurrection, on May 5.

VENICE. On Sunday, Pope Francis visited the Venice Art Biennale, which opened its gates on April 20 and will last until November 24. He is the first sovereign of the Vatican to visit the prestigious art festival, and officials of the Catholic church say that the historic moment demonstrates the will to strengthen dialogue with the cultural world. Romania is attending with an exhibition by Şerban Savu that has as its theme the relationship between work and free time. The exhibition in the Romanian Pavilion, titled “What Work Is/Ce este munca”, examines the iconography of work, drawing inspiration from historical realism and propaganda art from the countries that were part of the so-called “Eastern Bloc”. According to the Romanian Cultural Institute, rather than directly challenging or debunking such discourses, Savu wants to depict moments of pause and suspension in which the boundary between work and leisure blurs. These moments of uncertainty appear as reflections of wider social transformations and crises.

AIRPORT. The “Alexandru Podgoreanu” International Airport in Tuzla, on the Romanian Black Sea coast , has been reopened after extensive modernization works. It benefited from an investment of almost 100 million lei (20 million euros), through a contract signed with the Ministry of Transport. The airport has an entirely redesigned concrete surface, with 26 parking spaces for aircraft and helicopters, seven runways, a video surveillance system and a new control tower. The airport commander, Adrian Vasilache, said that, the intention is for the airport to become “a paradise for small private planes” and that only aircraft with a maximum of 42 seats can land in Tuzla. He also said that the airport aims to attract new operators, to encourage short domestic and international routes and to make the coast more accessible. Since 1999, Tuzla Airport has belonged to the Regional Air Services company, which also owns its own fleet of airplanes and helicopters, simulators for various trainings, an aircraft engineering school and a pilot school.

ELECTIONS. The Central Electoral Bureau in Bucharest has established the measures for those who will vote through a special ballot box in the local and European parliamentary elections scheduled in Romania on June 9. According to the Bureau, voters with limited mobility can submit a request to this effect at the electoral office of the polling station including on election day. In the polling stations in the country, only one special box will be used, in which both the ballots for the European Parliament elections and for the local ones will be inserted. The use of the special box is not allowed at the polling stations abroad. The vote will be expressed on the basis of an additional electoral list, and the persons registered on this list will be deleted from the lists that the polling stations have.

DEFICIT. Romania’s budget deficit exceeded 2% of the GDP after the first three months of this year, according to data presented by the Ministry of Finance. Spending was 37 billion lei (about 7.4 billion euros) higher than revenue. The ministry also states that total revenues totaled over 132 billion lei (26.5 billion euros) in the first quarter of the year, registering an increase of almost 16% compared to the same period in 2023, but expenses stood at 168 billion lei (approximately 33.7 billion euros), up 23% compared to the same period. Romania ended 2023 with a budget deficit of 5.68% of the GDP, 0.08 percentage points lower than in 2022.

ROWING. Romania won the gold medals in the women’s double sculls, thanks to Ioana Vrînceanu and Roxana Anghel, on Sunday, at the European Rowing Championships in Szeged (Hungary). Also on Sunday, the Romanians Florin Arteni and Florin Lehaci won the silver medals in the men’s double sculls event. On Saturday, Romania won three medals: one gold, in lightweight women’s double sculls, one silver, in women’s coxless four, and one bronze – in men’s 8+1.

FOOTBALL. FCSB won the title of Romanian football champion, on Saturday evening, after defeating Farul Constanţa (south-east) with a score of 2-1, at the National Arena in the capital, in the seventh leg of the Superleague’s playoffs. FCSB had not won the title since 2015. The team is undefeated in the playoffs, with five wins and two draws.

BOXING. Romanian boxer Lăcrămioara Perijoc won the silver medal in the 54 kg category, on Saturday, at the European Boxing Championships in Belgrade, after being defeated on points (5-0) in the final by the first-seed, Sara Cirkovic from Serbia. Lăcrămioara Perijoc, who has qualified for the Olympic Games in Paris, has a European title in her record, obtained in 2019, in Madrid. Lăcrămioara Perijoc won, in 2019, gold at the European Games in Minsk, silver in Krakow Malopolska in 2023, as well as silver at the 2022 World Championships in Istanbul. (MI)