The December 1 Military Parade, started at rd 11:00 am, in the presence of president Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, ended after 2,600 military and 360 technical means have marched in the applause of thousands of people gathered in the Constitution Square.The Parade of 1st of December, Romania's National Day, has started with the state anthem and 21 cannon salvos and the Guard presentation before officials — the salute of the fighting flag, reviewing the Guard of Honour and the Guard salute. Among the officials were former presidents Ion Iliescu, Emil Constantinescu and Traian Basescu, the Senate President, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, the Chamber of Deputies Speaker, Valeriu Zgonea, the chairman of the Constitutional Court of Romania, Augustin Zegrean, the Defence Minister, Mihnea Motoc, the Social Democrat Party (PSD) leader, Liviu Dragnea, the National Liberal Party (PNL) co-chair, Vasile Blaga, officers of the Romanian Army, other members of the Government, politicians and representatives of the state bodies, members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Bucharest. Over 2,600 military, specialists with 360 technical means with the National Defence Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Protection and Guard Service, the Special Telecommunication Service, The National Administration of Penitentiaries and the Bucharest Local Police participated in the military Parade that lasted for about an hour. The Romanian troops were added to, detachments from Bulgaria, Poland, the Republic of Moldova, the United States of America and Turkey. The Parade was commanded by Major General Adrian Tonea, deputy of the Chief of General Staff, second position in the Romanian Army, one of the most experimented Romanian officers with several missions in the operations' theatres in Afghanistan. Following the parade of the flag car, were marching the flag bearer of the General Staff and carriers identification flags of the Army, Air, Naval Command and the Joint Logistic Command of Communications and Information Technology, as well as identification of carriers of flags of the participating in missions in the theaters' operations. First parading block of the Romanian Army was represented by the detachment of the 26th Infantry Battalion "Neagoe" with 2nd Infantry Brigade "ROVINE". This year's parade has included as a first a detachment of the wounded military in the missions outside Romania's borders, in the Western Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. Also a premiere was the parade of the newly founded detachment with the troops of the NATO Southeast Division Multinational Command (HQ MND-SE) in Bucharest, a structure that will ensure a visible, constant presence of the NATO in Romania. Among the units of the Romanian Army parading were 2nd Infantry Battalion "Calugareni" and the 495th Infantry Battalion "Captain Stefan Soverth, both of 1 Mechanised Brigade "Argedava", Mountain Troops Battalion 30 "Dragoslavele" of the 2nd Brigade Mountain Troops "SARMIZEGETUSA", Military Intelligence Brigade "Marshal Alexandru Averescu", 6th Special Operations Squad "Michael the Brave", 265th Military Police Battalion, 1st Brigade Air-Ground Missile "General Nicolae Dascalescu", whose mission is to air protect Bucharest City. Military with the Navy shipboard and Marines from Battalion 307 Marines in Babadag, detachments of the Bucharest, Sibiu, Constanta, Pitesti and Breaza military tuition bodies also marched. Land parade ended with two detachments that remind our people's military traditions, the flags of vintage worn by young soldiers of the Guards Brigade 30 "Michael the Brave" and the Association of Military Tradition, military history reenactment group. The historical reenactment detachment wore the uniforms and ceremony equipment of the Border Guards, 1914 model, as well as campaign clothes, with the Infantry and Mountain Troops, 1916 model with the Romanian Royal Army. The Military Air Block was opened by IAR — 330 PUMA helicopter which carried the national flag, followed by two formations of three same-type aircrafts from the 90th Airlift Base (Otopeni). A third flight formation was shaped with three IAR-330 PUMA SOCAT helicopters from the 95th Airlift Base (Bacau). The evolution of the helicopters was ended by the IAR — 330 PUMA Naval, with the Navy Helicopters Group. There also evolved in the parade aircraft C-130 Hercules C-27J SPARTAN, IAR-99 and MiG-21 Lancer Falcon and the Acrobat IACARII three Romanian construction aircraft Yakovlev Yak-52. The military technique exposed within the Parade also included five URO VAMTAC armoured vehicles, five troops transporters PIRANHA, the MLI 84 M "Jderul" armored infantry fighting vehicle, five B 33 Zimbru amphibious armored carriers, the TR 85 M 1 "Bizonul" tanks, the GEPARD armored antiaircraft artillery system, the LAROM artillery system, the "OERLIKON" air complex, the HMMWV combat vehicles, the CHEVROLET TAHOE road vehicles etc.
Update: Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan won the Romanian presidential election on May 18, according to the official vote count. With 98.5% of the ballots counted, Nicusor Dan had 54.17% of the votes, 900,000 more than his opponent, nationalist George Simion. A record turnout both in the country and abroad helped Dan come back from 1.88 million […]
Romanians showed up in record numbers to vote in the second round of the presidential elections, both in the country and abroad. The exit poll results presented on Sunday evening pointed to a strong lead for Bucharest’s pro-EU mayor Nicusor Dan (54%-46%), but are only relevant for the domestic vote. Both candidates claimed victory in […]
Romanians showed up in large numbers to vote in the second round of the country’s presidential elections, one of the most important democratic tests Romania has seen in the last three decades. At 14:00, exactly halfway through the voting process in the country, over 5.63 million Romanians have cast their votes, compared with 4.52 million […]
Romanians abroad have mobilized massively to vote in the second round of the country’s presidential elections. Update: By Sunday afternoon (15:00 Bucharest time), over 1.2 million Romanians have voted abroad for the country's next president. That's some 220,000 more votes than the overall total in the first round. The countries with the largest turnout are […]
Romanians abroad have mobilized massively to vote in the second round of the country’s presidential elections. The vote in Diaspora started on Friday morning, and by Saturday evening (at 19:00), over 609,000 Romanians had already cast their votes. The turnout is almost 90% higher than the one recorded at the same time in the first […]
It's almost impossible to think about anything not related to elections this weekend but if you should need some distraction, there are options. Happening now is the European Film Festival, screening recent productions from the continent, very varied in theme, tone, and genre. The fest is playing Bucharest, Sfântu Gheorghe and Timișoara until Sunday and […]
