Romanian Politics

Eastern Approaches on the Bucharest rioting

by Craig Turp January 16, 2012 Bucharest

 UPDATE: As of Tuesday morning, this is now probably the most balanced English-language piece on the protests. Read it online at The Grauniad. — The Economist‘s always excellent Eastern Approaches blog has just published probably the best English-language summary of events so far (although the Battle of Bucharest headline is pushing it a little). Read [...]

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Much ado about nothing

by Craig Turp January 15, 2012 Bucharest

 There was a mini-riot in Bucharest last night. A lot of fuss over nothing. You can read a BBC news report of the events here, and there is video from Reuters here. Anyway, two quick points. 1. If you are not happy with a government, you can choose not to re-elect it at the next [...]

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Francophonies and the race to become mayor of Bucharest

by Craig Turp January 5, 2012 Bucharest

 One of our favourite ever moments of Bucharest Life came in September 2006, while we having dinner at a Bucharest restaurant. A group of French visitors on the next table were trying to order their meals in French, and, after becoming increasingly louder, yet still failing to make themselves understood, they gave up and tried [...]

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Bucharest Life 2012: It’s all about politics

by Craig Turp January 1, 2012 Bucharest

 One thing will dominate Bucharest Life this coming year, and it’s not Elena Udrea in latex. No, having taken a year’s holiday, Romanian politics is back in a big way, with two sets of elections scheduled for 2012, the first since the controversial presidential election of 2008. As things stand today, the loose and unholy [...]

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The year in Bucharest Life

by Craig Turp December 23, 2011 Bucharest

 We started the year in belligerent mood, dismissing as nonsense the idea that Minister of Tourism Elena Udrea should be held personally responsible for Romania failing to appear on a couple of meaningless travel lists. We followed that up with a similar post calling bullshit on the idea that foreign reporters should be compelled to [...]

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Romania’s not so secret CIA prison, and how low can Basescu go?

by Craig Turp December 10, 2011 Bucharest

 Just when you thought Romanian President Traian Basescu couldn’t go any lower, he plunged new depths this week with his behaviour towards the foreign press in Romania, Alison Mutler of the Associated Press (AP) especially. We assume that by now everyone has seen this AP report on Romania’s secret CIA prison, which was first aired [...]

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Political Animals

by Craig Turp December 6, 2011 Bucharest

 So it’s official. The ruling Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) has made Bucharest‘s stray dogs a political issue. Indeed, the mutts could well become one of the main issues of next year’s local elections. As we wrote about a week or so ago, the PDL has for a while been collecting signatures in order to force [...]

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