What the newspapers say: December 7, 2009

Romania’s got two self proclaimed Presidents, after the second round of elections yesterday, most newspapers read on Monday. Romanians living abroad might be the ones to decide the faith of elections this year. Elsewhere in the news, Romanian immigrants in Great Britain fight hard to have a living.

Social Democrat Mircea Geoana, a step away from Cotroceni while Basescu still hopes in a victory, Cotidianul reads. The Social Democrats celebrated last night, their victory in the Presidential elections.

The Liberals joined the party at the Social Democratic Party headquarters, where Liberal leader Antonescu was well received.

However, Gandul reads that the parallel count conducted by the Democrat Liberals, at 2 AM announced that Basescu got 50.14% of the votes wile Mircea Geoana 49.86%. At their turn, around the same time, the Social Democrats announced their very own parallel count after counting 62 voting sections: Mircea Geoana received 50.8% while Basescu 49.2%.

Romanians living abroad might be the ones to decide the faith of the country in these elections, Gandul reads. Students, short term immigrants or even those who left Romania decades ago might decide the results of the elections.

On the first round of elections, on November 22, some 50,000 Romanians living abroad cast a vote. The participation was double compared to 24,008 turnout in the European Parliament elections in 2008.

The final turnout was 94,338 people. Some 25,000 people voted in Spain, 21,000 in Italy and most of them voted for incumbent President Basescu. In all other countries, Basescu was classed first in the options, with 35% in Poland, 31% in Vietnam or 30% in Russia.

Romanians living in the Republic of Moldova are faithful to incumbent Basescu since 2004. Out of 10,000 Romanians living in Moldova, 8.777 turned out to vote and 7,963 opted for Basescu.

Evenimentul Zilei reads about the Romanian immigrants in Britain who fight everyday for a living, sometimes working 12 hours/day who earn less than the average salary. BBC reads that many Romanian workers sell cosmetics in stores across Britain and earn less than the average salary.

The cosmetics company, Ever Since, hires workers through an agency and pays them only based on the sales they manage to make. For the first month, the agency pays them with 650 pounds while the rest comes from the sales.

However, many Romanians claim that they did not know about these conditions and are forced to work 12 hours a day to make a living.