The ongoing heat and the resulting drought (secetă) is destroying agricultural crops on an unprecedented scale — almost 200,000 hectares. Prime minister Nicolae Ciucă told Bloomberg that he expects Romania to join Schengen this year — which makes one wonder if he was struck by the heat when he said that…
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Romanian Dispatch #53 (August 13, 2022)
Moldovan President Maia Sandu visited Bucharest with a request to buy gas from Romania. Another topic she and her Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis discussed was connecting Moldova’s and Romania’s electricity grids. Romania is the first country in the European Union to have a plan with concrete measures in the medium and long-term to integrate Ukrainian refugees. And more €€€ are coming from Brussels but some think tanks have doubts that Romania can absorb them.
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Romanian Dispatch #52 (July 30, 2022)
The war in Ukraine continues to dominate the news and the prices at the pump and (super)markets. Romanian prosecutors announced they are starting an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed by Russia. The government plans to revise this year’s budget in the first half of August. It will include cuts, but also support measures to mitigate high inflation and increasing energy prices. And no, she will not run for president in 2024 — ‘she’ being European Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi.
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Romanian Dispatch #51 (July 23, 2022)
It’s been 135 days since Russia invaded Ukraine and its impact is felt in Romania and around the globe — from rising prices and inflation to energy infrastructure. This week the EU revised its “green taxonomy” to include natural gas and nuclear energy, a decision that can be good for Romania given its reliance on gas and nuclear power. This week more candidates to replace President Klaus Iohannis in 2024 appeared on the political scene. Meanwhile more and more Ukrainian refugees are leaving Romania to return to their homeland whereas others plan to stay.
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Romanian Dispatch #50 (July 9, 2022)
Boekarest — Russische desinformatie over de invasie van Oekraïne richt zich nu ook op Roemenië. Zo meldden verschillende online platforms op 28 april dat een Amerikaans konvooi onderweg was naar Oekraïne, een poging om angst onder Roemenen aan te wakkeren over de betrokkenheid van Roemenië bij de oorlog in buurland Oekraïne. Het konvooi was in werkelijkheid onderweg naar een schietbaan in het oosten van Roemenië, meldde het Roemeense News.ro.
Het Inforadar-platform van het Roemeense ministerie van defensie belast met het tegengaan van desinformatie, vestigde de aandacht op het fake nieuwsartikel dat op verschillende online platforms in Roemenië en in het buitenland is gepubliceerd. Het artikel zou zijn gebaseerd op video-opnames van voertuigen van het Amerikaanse leger die begin dit jaar deel uitmaakten van het 2e Cavalerieregiment op de militaire basis ‘Mihail Kogălniceanu’. Het ministerie voegde er aan toe dat er momenteel veel buitenlandse troepen in Roemenië zijn gestationeerd — om de oostelijke flank van de NAVO te versterken, nadat Rusland op 24 februari Oekraïne was binnengevallen. ‘Deze kunnen vaak worden waargenomen tussen bases en gezamenlijke trainingsfaciliteiten.’
Nog meer desinformatie met als bron Rusland circuleert er rond Transnistrië, de door niemand erkende separatistische regio van RoemenIë’s noorderbuur Moldavië. Russische media publiceerden beweringen van onder meer een voormalig minister van Donetsk dat EU- en NAVO-lid Roemenië voorbereidingen treft om de pro-Russische Transnistrië-regio met geweld in te nemen. De bizarre beweringen werden breed uitgemeten in de Russische media na de eerste van een reeks tot nu toe onopgehelderde aanvallen op doelen in Transnistrië. ‘Roemenië is van plan om met de steun van de NAVO en met de deelname van het Oekraïense leger Transnistrië in te nemen en massale politieke repressie uit te voeren tegen alle aanhangers van Rusland’, kondigde het Russische dagblad Pravda onmiddellijk na de incidenten aan, onder verwijzing naar de beroemde politicoloog Sergei Markov, journalist en voormalig naaste adviseur van Poetin.
Moldavië wordt gezien als het meest kwetsbare land voor een mogelijke uitbreiding van de oorlog, gezien haar status als een kleine voormalige Sovjetstaat — dicht bij het front en met een deel van zijn grondgebied bezet door Rusland gesteunde separatisten. Roemenië heeft de ongegronde claims ontkend. Hoewel het onwaarschijnlijk is dat de valse claims in Russische media enig gewicht in de schaal zullen leggen in Roemenië of Moldavië, kunnen ze wellicht een deel van de Russen overtuigen, mocht Moskou zich voorbereiden op actie in Moldavië.
Your weekly Romanian Dispatch newsletter is back after a hiatus of two months. I have been completely pre-occupied with reporting from Moldova (mostly for Dutch radio and print media) — before and after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The outpour of support for Ukraine, and especially Ukrainian refugees, has been astounding, including in Romania, as I have witnessed at the borders in late February and early March. Yet the main theme of this week was the fall (and rise?) of former president(s) and prime ministers — from Traian Băsescu and Florin Cîțu to Viorica Dăncilă.
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Romanian Dispatch #49 (April 2, 2022)
While Romania registered almost 20,000 corona infections on Friday, a record, Parliament and the government abandoned the green pass, the coalition partners could not agree on measures to alleviate rising energy prices, and the Prime Minister was accused of a copy-paste job. On top of that a strike of the public transport company threw traffic in the capital into chaos.
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Romanian Dispatch #48 (January 15—21, 2022)
Parliament adopted the 2022 national budget just before Christmas, after the government had prepared it in record time (by skipping some of the usual consultation processes). Parliament continues to be divided, however, about if and where the so-called green or electronic certificate should be mandatory to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the work place, including Parliament itself. And Romania will not adopt the euro before 2029.
This and much more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here. The next issue will appear on January 8, 2022.
Enjoy the holiday season!
Romanian Dispatch #47 (December 11—24, 2021)
With infections on a downward trend and the number of Romanians that daily succumb to the coronavirus also going down, discussions about a mandatory green certificate for employees are stalled in Parliament. The infighting among the Liberals has come to a climax with the PNL expelling its former president, Ludovic Orban. Meanwhile the PNL is exploring a merger with the PMP. And, more urgently, negotiating forming a government with the PSD and UDMR.
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Romanian Dispatch #46 (November 6—12, 2021)
Prime minister-designate Nicolae Ciucă held negotiations with parties in Parliament this week and will present his cabinet line-up this weekend. Romanians came out in huge numbers to get the anti-COVID-19 jab.
This and much more in this week’s Romanian Dispatch. If you like it, why not pass it on? New readers can subscribe here.
Romanian Dispatch #44 (October 23—29, 2021)
