NEWS OF THE DAY - JULY 22

Prime Minister Victor Ponta would get 41 percent of Romanians' votes, and National Liberal Party head Klaus Iohannis 28 percent if the presidential election were next week, according to an opinion poll by CSCI received by AGERPRES on Tuesday. The ranking continues with Senate Chairman Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, who would get 10 percent as an independent candidate; Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu (head of the Civic Force, FC, currently in a merger process with the Democratic Liberal Party); Dan Diaconescu (Dan Diaconescu People's Party, PP-DD) and Hunor Kelemen (Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania, UDMR, a junior coalition partner) - 3 percent each; 1 percent of the respondents would vote for other candidates. For a probable second round, 55 percent of the respondents would vote Ponta, and 45 percent Iohannis.

* The electoral alliance of the democratic-liberals and the liberals will be called the PDL-PNL Christian Liberal Alliance, the Democratic Liberal Party leader Vasile Blaga announced on Tuesday. "We have analyzed the sociological researches referring to the name of the electoral alliance between the PDL [Democratic Liberal Party] and the PNL [National Liberal Party]. It's going to be the PDL-PNL Christian Liberal Alliance", Blaga said at the PDL Bucharest headquarters.

* Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Tuesday in Sibiu (northwest of Bucharest) announced that the National Defence Ministry (MApN) budget will grow this year and in the next three years, so that the Romanian military would benefit from upgraded equipment and better training conditions. "The Ministry of Budget and the Public Finances Ministry further hold very clear talks as regards that 0.2 percent increase of the GDP for the MApN to be allocated not only as of this year, but...