Romania’s PM Orban looks set to stay in power after close election

kamarfilm (23)in #news • 5 years ago

Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban claimed victory in Sunday's national election seen as pivotal for the country's future in the European mainstream, although one exit poll showed his ruling Liberals (PNL) losing by a narrow margin.

A reform-minded fiscal conservative, Orban is expected to get the nomination to form a coalition government from President Klaus Iohannis, even if final results show him slightly behind his rivals, the leftist PSD.

In silence and mourning, France marked five years since 130 people were killed by Islamist extremists who targeted the Bataclan concert hall, Paris cafés and the national stadium in a series of coordinated attacks.
The night of carnage on November 13, 2015, which saw 130 people killed and 350 wounded, was France’s deadliest peacetime attack, deeply shaking the nation.

It led to intensified French military action against extremists abroad and a security crackdown at home.

Five years on, Parisians remember how the November 13 terror attacks unfolded

Five years later, Prime Minister Jean Castex led silent ceremonies at the multiple sites targeted by coordinated attackers around the French capital: the Stade de France in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, the Bataclan, and five cafes in eastern Paris where gunfire shattered the balmy Friday night.

The public could not join this year’s commemorations because of France’s partial virus lockdown.

Victims of Paris 2015 attacks: How to live five years after ?
The sheer horror of the attacks, which were claimed by extremists from the Islamic State (IS) group, has left scars that have still not healed. Five years on, the country is again on its highest security alert following a spate of attacks blamed on Islamist radicals.

Friday's anniversary comes with France still reeling from three attacks in the last weeks: a knife attack outside the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly, the beheading of a teacher and a deadly stabbing spree at a Nice church.

In the last five years, 20 attacks have been carried out on French soil, 19 plots failed and 61 were foiled.

There has been an increasing trend of attacks being carried out by isolated individuals, previously unknown to the intelligence services, who are inspired by jihadist propaganda and carry out attacks with cold weapons needing little preparation.
But the threat of an attack planned from outside France – as was the case on November 13, 2015 – remains serious.

"Just because [the IS group] has suffered a military defeat does not mean its military capacities have been annihilated," said a French official involved in the fight against terror, who asked not to be named.

Between 100 and 200 French jihadists are still believed to be in former IS group strongholds in northern Iraq and Syria, and it would be an "illusion" to think they were not capable of clandestinely coming back to France, added the official.

Repeated attacks

In January 2015, Islamist gunmen massacred staff at the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly, claiming they were avenging its publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.

True to its defiant reputation, the magazine republished the cartoons to mark the start in September of the trial of suspected accomplices in the killings.

He quickly claimed victory, with one exit poll conducted by INSOMAR giving him a narrow lead of 32% versus the PSD's 28%. Another exit poll by Curs-Avantgarde put the PSD at 30.5% and the PNL at 29.1%. Both showed the centrist USR-Plus, Orban's likely coalition partner, at roughly 16%.

"The PNL thinks it is the winner of this election," Orban told supporters in a quick speech. "We will seek to represent a wide array of interests."

In power for a year, Orban had been constrained in any reform efforts by a parliament controlled by the PSD, which has seen three prime ministers toppled since the last legislative election in 2016 amid infighting over jobs.

The party's last government collapsed in late 2019, following the imprisonment of former leader Liviu Dragnea on corruption charges.

Campaigning on a promise to bring Romania closer to the European mainstream, Orban has pledged to restore investor sentiment badly shaken by the PSD's fiscal populism and revive efforts to repair neglected infrastructure and public services.

The PSD had seen a last-minute rise in polls, after it accused him of botching Romania's approach to the coronavirus pandemic.

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With a six-percent annual contraction in the third quarter, Romania had one of the worst economic outcomes in the EU.

The party's core rural electorate was angry over social distancing restrictions that curbed the ability of small-plot farmers to sell their produce in nearby cities.

"I thank Romanians who punished this mockery that was (Orban's) handling of the pandemic," PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu said.

5 years ago in #news by kamarfilm (23)

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