What the newspapers say: January 19, 2011 

One newspaper on Wednesday counts how much will cost the state to implement the President’s idea to offer 11,600 euro from the budget for all local candidates and Parliamentarians. IMF is willing to negotiate with Romanian authorities the period of the new agreement after the first one expires. Romania’s song for Eurovision will be on stage at the second semi-final in Dusseldorf for Eurovision 2011 on May 12. Last but not least, a pregnant woman who died due to A/H1N1 in Prahova County, nearby Bucharest was not suffering from other chronic diseases.

President Traian Basescu proposed on Tuesday for the state to pay each candidate running in local and general elections, as a solution to cut electoral bribes and fraud in political party financing, Gandul reads. According to Basescu, the state should offer each candidate 11,600 euro per candidate, per college.

He said that such a measure will cleanse the political class and will enable parties to seek competent candidates and not just people who are capable of financing their own campaign. The newspaper reads that just the campaign for the Parliamentary elections will cost over 20 million euro.

The Central Electoral Office data shows that there were 1,822 candidates and if each would receive 11,600 euro it would get to about 21,2 million euro. The situation gets more complicated in local elections because there are more local candidates. In the 2008 local elections there were 362,000 candidates from 44 parties, alliances and independents.

Elsewhere in the news, Romania libera reads that the IMF is willing to negotiate with Romanian authorities the period for which the agreement will be signed but he did not confirm that the IMF would opt for a two year period. Franks said that a two year agreement would make sense, but nothing was settled and that the IMF will be flexible in negotiations.

He added that the period of the next agreement depends on how fast the economy will recover. Franks said that if Romania will have a 4% growth there will be no need of the agreement. He said that it is confusing that even though Romania registered an increase in exports, the economy overall did not recover.

Evenimentul Zilei reads that Eurovision organizers decided that Romania’s representatives will be on the stage in the second semi-final, scheduled for May 12, at Dusseldorf. Romanians Hotel FM with their song, Change will compete against Belarus, Bulgaria, Denmark, Latvia, Israel, Ireland, Lithuania, Macedonia, and Slovenia in the second semi-final.

There are 43 countries in the contest this year. The Romanian song will be able to receive the votes of the countries that compete in the same group plus the votes of the five finalists: Italy, Germany and France.

Romania libera reads about the case of the woman hospitalized in Ploiesti, nearby Bucharest who was seven months pregnant and was diagnosed with AH1N1 and died in a few days. Doctors declared that the condition of the woman deteriorated fast and that she was not suffering from other chronic diseases. Doctors could not save her baby either.