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Opinii +1

Romarm has a young new CEO. Can he revive Romania's defence industry?

In 1990, Romania had a defence industry worth $800 million and 200,000 workers. Today, Rheinmetall alone turns over €9.9 billion. The question is whether Răzvan Marian Pîrcălăbescu can close that gap — or whether politics will stop him first.

  • Romania had 200,000 defence industry workers in 1990; the sector has since been largely dismantled.
  • Romarm's new young CEO takes charge at a moment of record European demand for armaments.
  • The real risk is not lack of opportunity but endemic political interference in state companies.

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Opinii 0

Trump and Xi: a truce of postponement, not a peace

The May 2026 summit was, in essence, a tacit agreement not to collide head-on — for now.

  • Trump and Xi chose to postpone direct confrontation rather than reach a structural agreement.
  • Both powers kept their core claims intact; concessions were tactical, not strategic.
  • The post-summit world order remains undefined — structural tension persists.

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Opinii +3

Eurovision 2026: what three minutes on stage say about us

Bulgaria wins for the first time in nearly two decades, Romania reaches the podium — the Balkans dominate the scoreboard. A result worth reading beyond the points tally.

  • Bulgaria wins Eurovision 2026, the Balkans' first victory in nearly two decades.
  • Romania finishes third, with Alexandra Căpitănescu and her band.
  • The result raises questions about real support for Romania's music industry.

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Opinii +2

What Japanese Cherry Trees Taught Me About My Son

An essay on childhood, falling down, and the courage to get back up — seen through the lens of spring blossoms.

  • An essay linking the fragility of nature to the experience of watching a child grow.
  • Japanese cherry blossoms and mono no aware — the beauty and sadness of transience.
  • The image of a child rising after a fall as the defining emblem of parenthood.

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Opinii 0

A former minister warns: the technocrat is transparent, the politician is not

Dragoș Pîslaru, former Minister of European Projects, explains why a technocratic prime minister is vulnerable to the parties that back him.

  • Pîslaru: a technocratic PM can be "read" by parties before he acts.
  • The Bolojan government has been in caretaker mode since 5 May, after the motion passed 281–4.
  • Cotroceni consultations take place Monday, 18 May, to designate a new prime minister.

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Opinii 0

Romania's officials sell foreign software but not Romanian trains and jam

The row over deputy PM Oana Gheorghiu and Schwarz Digits exposes a deeper asymmetry: the Romanian state champions foreign capital while ignoring domestic brands.

  • Deputy PM Gheorghiu publicly promoted Schwarz Digits, sparking debate about the state's economic priorities.
  • Romanian brands like Softronic trains and Topoloveni jams receive no comparable official backing.
  • ZF's critique targets the absence of a government-level strategy for promoting domestic capital.

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Opinii -2

What worries Europe: the far right toppled a pro-Western government

Analyst Ioan Fota warns that strategic ambiguity toward Russia, promoted by some political and military leaders, weakens Romania's defenses and erodes allied confidence.

  • The pro-Western Bolojan government fell with decisive far-right support on May 5, 2026.
  • Strategic ambiguity toward Russia, present even in military circles, weakens Romania's hybrid defenses.
  • European partners fear not the crisis itself, but who caused it and why.

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Opinii -1

A Controversial Book on the Maidan Massacre Faces Critical Scrutiny

Ivan Katchanovski's claim that protesters were shot from within their own ranks is challenged on methodological grounds in a critical review published in Romania.

  • Katchanovski claims gunmen from the protest camp caused deaths at Maidan in February 2014.
  • A critical review challenges the book's methodology, not just its conclusions.
  • The thesis is found incompatible with findings from Ukrainian and international judicial proceedings.

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Opinii -4

Romania's Tax Authority Rejected a Business Appeal Citing Laws That Don't Exist — Apparently Generated by AI

An entrepreneur found that the official ANAF decision against him referenced non-existent legal articles. The case exposes a troubling question: who is accountable when the state errs by algorithm?

  • ANAF issued a rejection decision citing legal articles that do not exist in Romanian law.
  • The error pattern points to the unsupervised use of a generative AI system.
  • Neither ANAF nor the Finance Ministry has acknowledged the mistake or explained how it occurred.

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Opinii 0

"A firefighter called to put out the blaze" — how his own minister describes Ilie Bolojan

European Funds Minister Dragoș Pîslaru offered an unusual portrait of the outgoing prime minister, indirectly rebutting PSD's claim that statistics, not parliament, brought Bolojan down.

  • Pîslaru compared Bolojan to a firefighter called in to extinguish a blaze started by others.
  • Grindeanu had argued that deficit data from INS, not a parliamentary vote, truly ended Bolojan's mandate.
  • The caretaker government has been in place since 5 May; talks on a new premier start Monday, 18 May.

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