What the newspapers say: June 2, 2010

The general strike continues to draw the attention of Romanian newspapers on Wednesday, as it starts to fade out, as one newspaper considers. Another interviews a top representative of the National Bank governor in an attempt to identify ways for Romania to overcome the economic crisis. And troubles AC/DC met on their way out of Romania has newspapers scream „bribery”.

Romania Libera interviews Lucian Croitoru, a top aide for Romanian National Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu, on issues spanning from his involvement in politics to ways out of the economic crisis. In the interview, Croitoru argues that in order to reduce the budget deficit, Romania should rather undergo serious privatization programs than increase taxes and tariffs, as some officials have pointed out it might happen should a series of austerity measures including pensions and salary cuts prove not enough.

Evenimentul Zilei keeps its focus on the general strike launched earlier this week across the country’s public sector and considers the strike is starting to fade out. Most teachers seem to have abandoned the protest, public servants are still in strike in only a handful of counties, while others are content with small-level street protests, the paper claims. And that comes only two days after the launch of the strike, which trade unions had hoped to lure up to a million protesters.

Adevarul focuses its attention on the strike launched on Tuesday by employees of Bucharest subway operator Metrorex in solidarity with strikers in the public sector. The paper calls the Metrorex strike „a strike with no claim” by which Metrorex politically-connected trade union chief Ion Radoi managed to block traffic in the capital city for half a day yesterday.

Elsewhere in the news, business magazine Capital calculates that the thousands of new but unsold apartments in Bucharest would manage to find an owner in seven years. It says that an optimistic calculus would see the 9,000 apartments in newly built residential projects sold in seven years at a rate of three or four apartments sold daily, put points out that for the time being the sale of 10 apartments in a month would be considered a real estate event.

Last but not least, Adevarul reads that custom officers in Nadlac, western Romania, have claimed bribe to let the convoy of trucks which accompanied AC/DC for their concert in Bucharest recently leave Romania. The issue is covered by several newspapers which show that the AC/DC caravan were illegally demanded to show some documents, then were requested money to be allowed to leave Romania and enter Hungary. The AC/DC team submitted a complaint to a Romanian authority signalling they were demanded to pay bribes of 50 euro per each of the 29 trucks transporting equipment for the concert. An investigation is under way.