ROMANIA - ABOUT THE COUNTRY AND ITS POLITICS

DECEMBER 3:

On Sunday, December 6, Romania will have parliamentary elections.  This is a good occasion to tell a bit about that country.

Its size is 238.000 sq.km – about half the size of Spain.  It has 20 million inhabitants. This includes a Hungarian-speaking minority of 1,2 million and a small German-speaking minority of 36.000 persons.  Before World War II about 800.000 German-speakers lived in Romania, but many of the emigrated to Germany and elsewhere.   There are about 3,4 million Romanians living in the OECD countries.

Romania’s present president, Klaus Iohannis, comes from the German-speaking minority. He was also chairman of the liberal party.

The country has borders with Bulgaria to the south, with Serbia to the west, Hungary to the north and Ukraine and Moldovia to the east.

Romania became a member of EU in 2004. It is still not a member of the Schengen-cooperation or of the EURO area.  But it will join both, when it fulfils the criteria.  The country also became a member of NATO in 2004.

The Romanian parliament has two chambers: the Senate ( 164 members ) and the House of Deputies ( 329 members ). This includes also members representing the Romanians abroad.  Both chambers are elected directly by the voters.  A political party has to get at least 5 % of the votes to get mandates.

The main political parties are: the Liberals ( with increasing support ). They are expected to get about 32 % of the votes.  The Social-democrats/Socialists have a decreasing support and will probably get around 20 %.  Finally, two smaller parties to the right are expected to get around 20 % together.

If you want to follow Romanian politics and affairs you may use these two English-language Romanian media:

        THE ROMANIA JOURNAL  -  https://romaniajournal.ro

Or:  ROMANIA INSIDER   -    www.romania-insider.com               

Romania’s flag:



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