Independent candidate Călin Georgescu won the first round of the Romanian presidential elections
The independent candidate in Romania’s presidential elections, Călin Georgescu, remains in first position in the electorate’s favour with 23.07%, according to partial results after the first round of Sunday’s elections. The data published on the website of the Permanent Electoral Authority also show that Marcel Ciolacu, head of the PSD, is in second place with 19.64%, while Elena Lasconi-USR is in third place with 18.05%. The other candidates got: George-Nicolae Simion 14.12%, Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă 9.01%, Mircea-Dan Geoană 6.1%, Hunor Kelemen 4.86%, Cristian Diaconescu 1.05%, while Ana Birchall, Ludovic Orban, Sebastian-Constantin Popescu, Alexandra-Beatrice Bertalan-Păcuraru and Silviu Predoiu got less than 1%. After the exit polls were published, independent candidate Călin Georgescu said that the 35 years of economic insecurity imposed on the Romanian people had turned into insecurity for political parties. „We have a duty to rebuild Romania and this is the most important thing. No matter what has happened, the Romanian people have realised that, through the family, they are the backbone of Romanian society and, no matter what happens, we love our small family and I personally love our big family, which means my people, my country”, he added. PSD leader, Marcel Ciolacu, thanked Romanians for their trust, as well as the institutions involved in the organisation of the first round of the presidential elections, which he said was without major incidents. „I would like to thank all those who voted for me and I would like to say that for me every vote is a responsibility. The vote is a motion of censure from Romanians that they do not want a PSD government,” said Elena Lasconi. AUR leader George Simion accuses electoral law violations during the voting process. „We are the biggest threat to this system. We clearly know that we rely on two million voters. I thank every Romanian who has been with me in this campaign,” he said. PNL leader Nicolae Ciucă said: „I want to thank all the Romanians who turned out to vote, to thank those who voted for me and those who did not. This is an exercise in democracy and an image that shows that there is room for everyone on the political scene in Romania”. Nicolae Ciucă resigned as party leader following the results of the presidential elections.
Local referendum in Romania’s capital
The local referendum initiated by Mayor General Nicușor Dan was also voted in Bucharest on Sunday. The public consultation passed the validation threshold of 30% and obtained, according to estimates, a majority vote in favor of the three proposals. 67% of voters voted YES for the centralization of building permits in the capital, 64% agreed with the proposal to divide the money between the city and the sectoral city halls and 82% voted for the program to prevent drug use in schools. But the vote must be confirmed by Parliament, and political parties cannot ignore the will of 500,000 Bucharest residents, said Mayor Nicușor Dan. He asked the political parties to give their opinion in the coming days on how to transpose the will of the citizens in the referendum into law. „The debate that we will have in a few weeks on the National Budget Law must include the result of the referendum, the debate that we will have in the first half of 2025 on the Urban Planning Code must include the result of the referendum and the Tax Code must be amended according to the result of the referendum in the first half of 2025,” said Nicușor Dan.
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women marked in Romania
In 2023, globally, every 10 minutes a woman will be killed by someone she knows, according to a UN statistic, as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is marked on Monday. In Romania, the National Institute for Public Health shows that violence against women has been on the rise this year, and according to data from the Women’s Organization of the National Trade Union Bloc, 34,000 Romanian women are victims of domestic violence every year. Precisely where Romanian women should feel safe, at home, 93% of them suffer daily because of violence, according to the BNS. And statistics from the National Institute for Public Health show that, in the first nine months of this year, the number of criminal offenses of domestic violence increased by 5% compared to the same period in 2023. There were more cases of hitting or other violence, threatening and failure to comply with protection orders. One in four Romanian women has been physically or sexually assaulted by a partner or ex-partner. The INSP warns that children who witness domestic abuse may suffer psychological trauma, behavioral disorders and later become victims of violence or perpetrators themselves. Globally, a UN report shows that last year an alarming 140 women were killed every day by people who know them, regardless of social class or age. The UN says that while women in Europe and the US are killed mainly by their partners, in the rest of the world they are also victims of other family members. UN experts say that many of these murders were preventable because the women killed had been repeatedly physically, sexually and psychologically abused, but the perpetrators were not stopped in time and escalated to the point of murder./mbaciu
Magda Baciu – RADOR