The Week in Review (03-07.02.2025)
A look at the headline-grabbing events of the past week in Romania
Ştefan Stoica, 08.02.2025, 14:00
The 2025 budget, adopted
Romania’s state and social security budgets were adopted on February 6 by the Bucharest Parliament, shortly after being greenlit by the expert committees. The budget is built on an economic growth rate of 2.5% and a deficit of 7% of GDP. Last year, the deficit was close to 9%, prompting the new PSD – PNL – UDMR ruling coalition to make efforts for its gradual reduction. The government has promised that investments will not be affected by the budget rebalancing. According to the finance minister, Tánczos Barna, conditions are met to support the country’s development through record investments and to ensure the financial resources for the payment of salaries and pensions and the protection of the vulnerable categories. The opposition USR criticized the new budget provisions, for what they see as overestimation of income, indebtedness of Romanians through the measures adopted and the elimination of some tax facilities.
Huge real estate scam with political overtones
The vote on the state budget was not the only important event that took place on Wednesday, in Parliament. Representatives of both opposition groups in Parliament, the pro-Europeans and the sovereigntists, loudly demanded the resignation of the Social-Democratic prime minister Marcel Ciolacu. The reason is the insufficiently clarified connections which he allegedly has with the former Social Democratic MP Laura Vicol, who headed the Chamber of Deputies’ legal committee for four years, and with her husband, Vladimir Ciorbă. The Prosecutor’s Office accuses the two of having developed a financial scam through which they collected from clients, individuals and legal entities, over 195 million euros, without delivering the apartments and parking lots which their clients had paid for. The Vicol-Ciorbă couple and three other people with positions within the Nordis group of companies have been arrested this week after extensive searches carried out in Romania and abroad. The investigation targets 40 individuals and 32 companies. According to investigators, there were also cases of the same apartment being sold to different clients. The prosecutor’s office seized hundreds of apartments and houses, commercial spaces, land, cars and shares and blocked dozens of bank accounts of the individuals and companies involved. The tax office announced an internal control, after prosecutors claimed that four of its inspectors could be charged with favoring the criminal. The latter allegedly took no measures against the Nordis group, although they had already discovered irregularities three years ago. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who traveled on planes rented by Nordis, claims that he paid for his flights himself. He is not being accused of any crime, but his image is tainted by his presence, alongside other PSD leaders, in the company of such people.
A new attempt to suspend the president
Prime Minister Ciolacu is not the only one whose resignation is being requested. One of the three sovereigntist parties in the Romanian Parliament on Wednesday submitted a new request, the third, for the suspension of President Klaus Iohannis. The previous request had been rejected by the Permanent Bureaus. The new request is also signed by the Save Romanian Union (USR) whose members said they would vote for it if it reached the plenary session. The opposition claims that the presence of Iohannis at the helm of the state is illegitimate. However, Iohannis repeatedly ruled out the option of his resignation, arguing that the Constitution requires him to remain in office until the future president is sworn in. Iohannis remained in office although his second and last term expired on December 21, after the Constitutional Court annulled last year’s presidential election. A new vote will take place on May 4 and 18. The former liberal leader Crin Antonescu will also enter the race for the supreme office. Last Sunday he received the validation as a joint candidate of the coalition government (PSD-PNL-UDMR) also from the social democrats, after he had previously been confirmed by the liberals and ethnic Hungarians.
Again, about the theft of the Dacian treasure pieces
The prime minister’s control body has found deficiencies or legislative gaps in terms of protecting the cultural heritage, and failures of compliance with the legal framework that regulates the temporary export of classified movable cultural assets. This is the result of checks undertaken in relation to the conditions in which some of the artefacts from the Dacian treasure were exhibited in the Dutch Drents Museum in Assen. The control body also found that the security and anti-burglary security measures and conditions proposed by the foreign entities to which the assets were lent were not analyzed by specialists. Four of the most important artefacts from Romania’s national heritage have been recently stolen from the Drents Museum in the Dutch city of Assen, namely the gold helmet from Coţofeneşti, dating from the period between the 5th and 4th centuries before Christ, as well as three Dacian gold bracelets from Sarmizegetusa Regia, from the second half of the first century before Christ. The pieces, of inestimable historical value, were part of the Exhibition “Dacia – The Kingdom of Gold and Silver” which opened on July 7, 2024 and was to be closed on January 25.
Retirement of a great champion
“My body can no longer sustain the effort it takes to get back to where I once was, and I know what that requires.” This is how Simona Halep, the most valuable tennis player in the history of Romania, with the most titles, explained her retirement. The announcement was made on Tuesday, almost a year after returning to professional competitions, which she had been banned from due to doping allegations. Simona Halep was in first place in the WTA ranking for 64 weeks. Her record includes two Grand Slam titles – Roland Garros and Wimbledon – as well as three other finals played, two at Roland Garros and one at the Australian Open. She has won 24 titles and won more than 40 million dollars from tennis, being third on the all-time list of WTA earners, behind Serena and Venus Williams. (EE, LS)
