November 29, 2024

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 29.11.2024, 13:55

CCR – The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) meets again today to analyze the request to cancel the first round of last Sunday’s presidential election, made by one of the candidates. On Thursday, during the first examination, the CCR requested the reverification and recounting by Friday at 2 p.m. local time of all the ballots from the first round. The recounting process has started, but the press believes that it is impossible for it to end within the deadline imposed by the Court. The independent candidate on first place after the first round, Călin Georgescu, considered almost unanimously a pro-Russian extremist, criticized the CCR decision and accused the governing parties, the National Liberal Party – PNL and the Social Democratic Party – PSD, of using state institutions for personal interests. The Save Romania Union – USR President (center-right), Elena Lasconi, qualified in the presidential final on second place, also accused the Constitutional Court of playing with national security. The Prime Minister and social-democratic leader Marcel Ciolacu, ranked third after the first round, declared that he did not want to comment on the decision of the Constitutional Court. In turn, the interim president of the PNL, Ilie Bolojan, claims that the Court’s decision comes to cause tensions within the society, generate uncertainty and decrease trust in the state institutions.

CSAT – The Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT) found the existence of cyber-attacks aimed at altering the fairness of the electoral process in the first round of the presidential election in Romania, held on November 24. According to the Council, hostile state and non-state actors, especially the Russian Federation, have shown a growing interest in influencing the public agenda in Romanian society and social cohesion. CSAT also concluded that one of the presidential candidates, in this case Călin Georgescu (pro-Russian, anti-NATO and EU), would have benefited from massive exposure, due to the preferential treatment he allegedly received from the social media platform TikTok. By not complying with Romanian electoral legislation, TikTok significantly increased Georgescu’s visibility in relation to the other candidates, who were recognized as such by algorithms and whose messages were filtered.

National Day – On Saturday, the general rehearsal for the military parade dedicated to Romania’s National Day, December 1, takes place in Bucharest. About 2,500 soldiers and specialists from the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunications Service, the Penitentiary Administration and the Romanian Customs Authority, with about 190 pieces of technical equipment and 45 aircraft, will participate in Sunday’s parade. Along with the Romanian soldiers, about 240 foreign soldiers from allied and partner countries will also march in the parade.

Handball – Today, the Romanian women’s national handball team meets the team of the Czech Republic in Debrecen, Hungary, in the debut match at the 2024 European Championship, hosted by three countries, Austria, Hungary and Switzerland, from November 28 to December 15. The Romanian handballers are part of group B, alongside the Czech Republic, Montenegro and Serbia. This is the first continental final tournament with 24 teams at the start, and the first since the retirement of international player Cristina Neagu, who has been designated the player of the world several times. In men’s handball, the champion Dinamo Bucharest was defeated away from home by the Portuguese team Sporting Lisbon, score 34-25, on Thursday evening, in Group A of the Champions League. Dinamo will play the next match, at home, against the French from Paris Saint-Germain, on December 5.

Georgia – The Georgian police intervened in force last night to disperse the thousands of pro-European demonstrators who blocked the center of the capital Tbilisi. People took to the streets after the government announced that it was suspending any negotiations for accession to the European Union until 2028 and that it would refuse, during this period, to receive any more European grants. President Salome Zurabishvili accused the Executive of declaring war on its own people. The ruling party, Georgian Dream, founded by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia in the 90s, has recently adopted an increasingly hostile discourse towards the European Union and the United States. The group also proposed a series of Russian-inspired laws and was recently accused of rigging legislative elections. Moreover, the European Parliament yesterday adopted a resolution in which it states that the elections were incorrect and requested their rerun – a resolution voted with 444 votes for and only 72 against, supported by the majority of parliamentary groups, except for those of the extreme right. Moreover, the European Parliament requires international supervision, to guarantee their correctness. (LS)