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Belarus and Romania officially established diplomatic relations on 14 February 1992. [1] Currently, Belarus has an embassy in Bucharest, while Romania has an embassy in Minsk.
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Belarus | Romania |
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Belarus and Romania officially established diplomatic relations on 14 February 1992. [1] Currently, Belarus has an embassy in Bucharest, while Romania has an embassy in Minsk.
Romanian President Ion Iliescu visited Minsk both in July 1992 and March 1994, while Chairman Stanislav Shushkevich of Belarus visited Bucharest in May 1993 and April 1994. [2]
Belarusian businessman Pavel Topuzidis is the honorary consul of Romania in Belarus. [3]
In 2020, protests in Belarus against the outcome of the presidential elections of 9 August 2020 occurred. Two days later, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu said he was "very concerned" about the situation of the country and that the "only way" was to stop the violence and start a political dialogue. He also urged the country to respect fundamental human rights. [4] Alexander Lukashenko, the president elected in the controversial 2020 elections, has been compared to the Romanian communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu. The latter suffered a revolution against him in 1989, which ended with his capture and execution. Some have said that Lukashenko could end in the same way as him. [5]
On August 14, three youth and student organizations condemned the Belarusian government for manipulating the elections and using violence. They urged Aurescu to defend the rights of civil society, "even through the adoption of sanctions". The three organizations were among the first in Romania to state their opinion on the matter. [6] On 16 August, dozens of Romanians protested in front of the Belarusian embassy in Bucharest. They carried banners expressing their solidarity with the protestants, criticized the repression of the protests and expressed their desire for the elections to be repeated. [7]
At the beginning of the incident, most Romanian politicians or government officials said nothing, usually waiting for statements from the European Union instead of reacting individually. [8] An exception was the political party Save Romania Union (USR), whose MPs proposed a joint statement by the two houses of the Romanian Parliament on the situation in Belarus. The president of the USR, Dan Barna, described Lukashenko as "a Ceaușescu lookalike, who will eventually be removed from power". [9] Furthermore, leaders of several European Parliament political parties, under the initiative of the Romanian politician Dacian Cioloș, called on 17 August for a repeat of the Belarusian elections. Russia was also asked to "refrain from any intervention". [10]
In 19 August, the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said that the European Union should take measures against the situation in Belarus, including sanctions against those involved in the use of violence against protesters and in the electoral fraud. He also called for the release of the persons that were illegally detained. [11] On the same day, the European Council of the European Union (of which Romania is a member) declared that the 2020 elections were not fair or free and rejected its results. [12]
In 24 August, an open letter was sent to Aurescu and Iohannis, as well as to the Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, to support civil society and human rights in Belarus. They compared the protests to the Romanian Revolution in 1989 and the Romanian protests of 2017–2019. Methods of torture committed in 1989 in Romania were also compared with those committed in 2020 in Belarus. The letter called on the Romanian government to take a firm position in favor of the rights of the Belarusian people, free elections, an end to torture and others. At the end of the letter, it urges the recipients to open communication channels with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and the Coordination Council, to declare that Lukashenko is not recognized as president, to set a deadline for transfer of power to Tsikhanouskaya and to break diplomatic relations with Belarus in case Lukashenko does not cease the violent repression. [13] The letter was signed by more than 200 political or cultural figures of Romania, including former Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu, writer Ana Blandiana, directors Cristian Mungiu and Adina Pintilie and the former political prisoner Radu Filipescu. [14] [15]
On 26 August, Aurescu announced on Twitter that the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was preparing to allocate 100,000 euros to support Belarusian civil society and independent media. [16] [17] The next day, he said before an informal European Union meeting that Romania is "very concerned" about the situation in Belarus and the abuses against protesters and the opposition and that the country supports "a full list of sanctions" against various Belarusian officials. [18]
On 2 September, the Senate of Romania unanimously approved, after 124 votes in favor, to make a declaration regarding the violation of fundamental human rights in Belarus. The Romanian Parliament expressed solidarity with the Belarusian population, called for an end to violence to give place to peaceful protests and said that it believed that a "more articulate reaction" from the international community will be necessary in case the situation is not resolved. [19] On 4 September, Aurescu confirmed that Romania would continue to call for an end to violence, for the beginning of a political dialogue and for respect of the human rights of the Belarusians. He also reiterated the intention to contribute 100,000 euros to Belarusian civil society and independent journalism and rejected the accusations of interference in the internal affairs of the country. [20]
On 9 September, PEN Romania, together with other international PEN centers, signed a document calling for the release of political prisoners from Belarus. It also criticized Lukasenko's repressive policies. [21] Furthermore, on the same day, several diplomats from the European Union stayed at the home of the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, who is a member of the Coordination Council, to avoid her arrest. Among the diplomats were representatives from Romania, as well as Austria, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden. [22] [23]
The National Liberal Party is a Christian-democratic and socially conservative political party in Romania. Re-founded in mid January 1990, shortly after the Revolution of 1989 which culminated in the fall of communism in Romania, it claims the legacy of the major political party of the same name, active between 1875 and 1947 in the Kingdom of Romania. Based on this historical legacy, it often presents itself as the first formally constituted political party in the country and the oldest of its kind from the family of European liberal parties as well.
Klaus Werner Iohannis, sometimes referred to by his initials KWI in the Romanian press, is a Romanian politician, physicist, and former physics teacher who has been serving as president of Romania since 2014.
Dacian Julien Cioloș is a Romanian agronomist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from November 2015 to January 2017. He previously served as Agriculture Minister under Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu between October 2007 and December 2008. In November 2009, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso nominated him to be the next Agriculture Commissioner, a position he assumed in February 2010 and held until his term expired in November 2014. In November 2015, President Klaus Iohannis named him Prime Minister; Cioloș assumed office after receiving approval from Parliament.
Presidential elections were held in Romania in 2014. They were the seventh presidential elections held in post-1989 Romania. In the first round of the elections on 2 November, the top two of the fourteen candidates qualified in a run-off on 16 November. These candidates were Victor Ponta, former Prime Minister and ex-leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) who won around 40% of the vote in the first round, and Klaus Iohannis, then mayor of Sibiu and leader of the Christian Liberal Alliance (ACL), who won around 30% in the first round respectively. Following large protests on how Ponta's government organized the elections in the diaspora, Klaus Iohannis staged a surprising come-back and won the run-off with 54.5%, or more than a million votes than his contender.
Vasilica Viorica Dăncilă is a Romanian politician, former leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), and was Prime Minister of Romania from 29 January 2018 to 4 November 2019. She is the first woman in Romanian history to hold both the office of Prime Minister and that of president of the PSD. In 2014, she was elected to a second term as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), representing the PSD. She was also president of the Social Democratic Women's Organization (OFSD) between 2015 and 2018.
Clotilde Marie Brigitte Armand is a French-born Romanian politician and businesswoman. Since October 2020, she is Mayor of Bucharest's Sector 1.
The Save Romania Union is a centre to centre-right political party in Romania. It is currently the third largest party in the Parliament of Romania with 41 deputies and 20 senators, and a fifth at local level nationwide, after the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) and the People's Movement Party (PMP), two smaller centre-right political parties in the country.
There were numerous protests against the Romanian Government between 2017 and 2019. In January 2017, days after the government of the Grindeanu Cabinet was sworn into office in Romania, protests took place throughout the country against ordinance bills that were proposed by the Romanian Ministry of Justice regarding the pardoning of certain committed crimes, and the amendment of the Penal Code of Romania. At the heart of these protests is the community Corruption Kills, founded by Florin Bădiță, who alongside other civic groups organized what proved to be the largest protests since 1989, thus realizing the "Revolution of our generation".
Presidential elections were held in Romania on 10 November 2019, with a second round held on 24 November 2019. They were the eighth presidential elections held in post-1989 Romania. Incumbent President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, first elected in 2014, was eligible for re-election. He subsequently defeated former Prime Minister and ex-leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Viorica Dăncilă in the second round of the election by a landslide, receiving 66% of the vote – the second-highest vote share on record in this type of elections after Ion Iliescu.
USR PLUS was a Romanian progressive, liberal, and centrist political alliance active between 2019 and 2021. Established on 2 February 2019 solely as an electoral alliance between the political parties Save Romania Union (USR) and the Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (PLUS) it was initially called 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance. The alliance was formed to participate together in the May 2019 European Parliament election in Romania.
The following is a list of the official reactions to the 2020 Belarusian presidential election and the surrounding 2020 Belarusian protests.
The Cîțu Cabinet was the 131st government of Romania, led by the national liberal (PNL) Prime Minister Florin Cîțu. It was removed from office after a motion of no confidence passed by the Parliament with a record of 281 votes, the largest number of votes on a motion of no confidence since the Romanian Revolution.
Events from the year 2021 in Romania.
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Romania on 1 December 2024.
Presidential elections will be held in Romania on 24 November 2024. A second round will be held on 8 December 2024 if no candidate receives an absolute majority of the vote. They will be the ninth presidential elections held in post-1989 Romania. As the Romanian Constitution allows a maximum of two presidential terms, incumbent President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, first elected in 2014 and then re-elected in 2019, is not eligible for re-election. His second term will formally end in December 2024.
A political crisis began on 1 September 2021 in Romania, engulfing both major coalition partners of the Cîțu Cabinet, namely the conservative-liberal National Liberal Party (PNL) and the progressive-liberal Save Romania Union (USR). The crisis also involved former prime minister Ludovic Orban (PNL), who was set to face Prime Minister Florin Cîțu (PNL) in a leadership election during the party congress on 25 September, with the latter eventually replacing the former. Orban would eventually resign from his position as President of the Chamber of Deputies, with him and his supporters subsequently splitting from the PNL, in order to form the Force of the Right (FD).
Force of the Right, sometimes translated as Right's Force or Right Force, is a liberal-conservative political party in Romania founded in December 2021 by Ludovic Orban, former National Liberal Party (PNL) president and former Prime Minister of Romania between 2019 and 2020, in opposition to the current leadership of the PNL which is currently officially led by Nicolae Ciucă and unofficially by Klaus Iohannis.
The Ciucă Cabinet was the 132nd government of Romania led by former Romanian Land Forces army general Nicolae Ciucă from 25 November 2021 to 12 June 2023.
The National Coalition for Romania, initially referred to as the Coalition for Resilience, Development and Prosperity, is a big tent grand coalition in Romania, which includes the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL). In addition, this grand coalition supports the presidency of Klaus Iohannis. The CNR also included the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) until its withdrawal from the coalition in June 2023.
Events from the year 2022 in Romania.
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