What the newspapers say: July 4, 2008

The opposition Social Democrats will win Parliamentary elections this fall, one newspaper reads on Friday. Elsewhere in the news, Bucharest District 2 mayor approved the construction of a 14 floor building on almost 8,300 sq. meters of green area. Last but not least, judges seem to be easily corrupted if threatened by felons.

Cotidianul reads that parliamentary elections this fall will most probably push Social Democrats to a win. The newspaper reads that even though citizens will choose Parliamentarians by uninominal vote, it is actually other factors that matter.

There seems to be a strong correlation between the vote cast for a local mayor and a county council president. Since the mayor is the one that usually names the party’s candidate for the county council presidency, he seems to be the most important factor.

Statistically, the newspaper reads that the correlation is solid enough. However, there still are some deviations: for example, in cities, the correlation is weaker because the voter is informed, sophisticated and pays more attention to details.

In the new voting system, it will be thus the mayor which will have more popularity and he will be able to better campaign for his party’s candidate. His local influence is an advantage: each mayor will seek to have a representative in the Parliament in order to influence the decision making process.

In the June local elections Social Democrats have with 7.32% more county council president mandates, with 7.23% more mayors than Democrat Liberals and with 11% more first round winnings. Social Democrats thus seem to have more legitimacy in front of the electorate than other big parties.

Elsewhere in the news, Bucharest District 2 mayor Neculai Ontanu approved a 14 floor building to be built on some 8,300 sq. meters of green area, Gandul reads. Even though he bragged that he is an active supporter of green areas in Bucharest, things seem to be quite different in practice.

In late March, District 2 local council approved the building of a residential complex with 14-floor buildings. However, the name of the beneficiary is classified on grounds that it contains personal information.

Moreover, local representatives have hidden this decision among other 54 urban development plans. The local council approved the whole pack at once and thus there are few if any local counselors who actually know what they have really approved.

Legally, nobody has a right to build on that plot of land because it is part of the Bucharest protected green area. Even so, the council’s technical commission approved the project.

Last but not least, Romania libera reads about the easy ways a judge in Romania can be threatened and influenced to rule in favor of the accused. The newspaper reads about famous felons the Camataru brothers who are behind bars for organized crime and their pressures on the judges instrumenting their case.

Thus, Nutu Camataru’s time in prison shrank from 9 years to almost 3 years because the judge refused to take into account some phone call tapes which the Constitutional Court previous classified as legal.