November 8, 2014

A roundup of Romanian and international news

România Internațional, 08.11.2014, 14:28

The two candidates remaining in the race for the presidential seat in Romania continue their election campaigns. On Saturday the Social Democrat Victor Ponta, a candidate of the alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party, will go to Cluj, in the north west, while the Liberal leader Klaus Iohannis, representing the Christian Liberal Alliance made up of the National Liberal party and the Liberal Democratic Party will campaign in Sibiu (in central Romania), a city where he is also a mayor. On Friday the Constitutional Court validated the results of the first round of voting when Ponta got 40.44% of the votes and Iohannis 30.37%. for the second round Victor Ponta got the support of some of the candidates eliminated from the competition, namely the former leader of the National Liberal Party, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, Corneliu Vadim Tudor and Dan Diaconescu, two populist leaders, and the former director of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service, Teodor Melescanu. Klaus Iohannis will be supported by the independent candidate Monica Macovei, a former justice minister. The leader of the opposition, pro-presidential party, the People’s Movement Party, Elena Udrea, called on her voters to vote against Ponta, while the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, in the governing coalition, urged their voters to vote according to their conscience.

The Central Electoral Bureau in Romania has pointed out that the responsibility for the organization of polling stations abroad lies, according to the law, exclusively with the Foreign Ministry. In a communiqué made public on Saturday the Central Electoral Bureau says they have clarified this aspect in a decision adopted on Tuesday, which excludes any legal obstacle in the way of setting up further polling stations for the Romanians abroad. Previously, the Romania foreign minister, Titus Corlatean, had said that the law did not allow for the setting up of new polling stations and the extension of the voting hours, but that they would increase the number of voting booths and stamps for the second round of the presidential election due on November 16th. For what he called serious deficiencies in the organization of the voting process abroad in the first round of voting, the incumbent president Traian Basescu called for the resignation of the foreign minister Corlatean and of the minister delegate for the Romanians in the Diaspora, Bogdan Stanoevici. In turn the PM Ponta said that minister Corlatean and his team at the foreign minister have guaranteed that on November 16th no Romanian citizen who wants to cast his or her vote will be left outside the polling stations. The statements follow the incidents reported in the first round of voting when the Romanians in the Diaspora queued for hours to cast their vote but did not manage to do so. Tension was reported at the polling stations in London, Munich, Chisinau and at the Romanian embassy in Paris where the French police had to intervene to prevent the escalation of the conflict.

The Romanian government on Saturday reiterated its support for neighboring Serbia’s EU accession. On the occasion of the inauguration of 3 new cross border points, the Romanian and Serbian prime ministers agreed on building a highway that should link the Serbian capital Belgrade to the city of Timisoara, in the west of Romania. They say the building of this highway will facilitate economic relations. A consistent supporter of Serbia’s European integration Romania is one of the 5 EU member states that have not recognized the independence of the former Serb province of Kosovo, with a majority Albanian population. Bucharest is however advocating for the observance of the rights of the ethnic minorities in Serbia, especially of the numerous Romanian community in Voivodina and Timoc Valley (in the east).

The Orthodox and Greek Catholic believers in Romania are celebrating Saturday Saints Archangels Michael and Gabriel, who according to theological teachings, are the highest of the angels, spiritual beings who were God’s messengers on earth. Archangel Michael led the Jewish people towards the Promised Land while Archangel Gabriel is the one who heralded the birth of prophet John the Baptist and of Jesus Christ the Redeemer. As many as 1 million 300 thousand Romanians who bear the names of the two archangels are celebrating their name day on Saturday.

Romania’s national rugby team is playing on Saturday in Bucharest against the US team, as part of a friendly match. This will be the 7th match played by the two teams that first met in 1924 at the Paris Olympics. The Americans defeated the Romanians 5 times, while Romania won a single match against the Americans. This month the Romanian rugby team will also play in two test matches against Japan on November 15th and against Canada on November 22nd, in the run up to next year’s World Cup to be hosted by England.