CSM Bucharest, the first Romanian women’s handball team to win the EHF Champions League after more than 50 years, should be an example for the Bucharest National Opera’s Romanian and foreign artists, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday evening.

“A wonderful victory by CSM Bucharest! It shows that when we know how to work together, when we invest properly, when we know how to gather talents from the capital, from the country, and from the whole world, we can be champions,” Ciolos wrote.

CSM Bucharest, which has ten foreign players and ten Romanians in its squad, won the EHF Champions League, on Sunday, after a dramatic victory against Hungary's Gyor in the final, in Budapest. Moreover, the team has been managed by Danish head coach Kim Rasmussen.

“It’s a lesson of patriotism, organization, and teamwork. Patriotism, because this team is a Romanian project that has reached huge international success. Maybe those who have been trying to put the National Opera’s performance under completely wrong coordinates, should look at this wonderful team and learn to work together for Romania and Bucharest,” the Prime Minister added.

The scandal at the Bucharest National Opera, which started at the beginning of April when the culture minister named a new manager, has split the institution’s artists into two camps. Most of the Opera’s employees, led by Romanian conductor Tiberiu Soare, have turned against Danish choreographer Johan Kobborg, unhappy with the way he has been managing the Opera’s ballet company and with the high salaries paid to Kobborg and some of the other foreign dancers. Kobborg has been supported by a group of Romanian and foreign dancers led by his fiancé, famous Romanian ballerina Alina Cojocaru.

The conflict, which has caused several opera and ballet show cancellations, has determined Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos to change the culture minister. The Government also delegated Deputy Prime Minister Vasile Dincu to negotiate with the two sides and try to reach a solution to the crisis. After several rounds of negotiations, Dincu proposed that Romanian choreographer Beatrice Rancea, the director of the Iasi Opera, should take over as general manager of the Bucharest National Opera.

editor@romania-insider.com