What the newspapers say: January 21, 2008

A Romanian Gypsy boy offers far-right Hungarian Guard movement in Budapest pretext to protest, one newspaper reads on Monday. The Romanian political stage is just as hot, as one newspaper reads about the top ten absentees in the Romanian House of Deputies. Last but not least, another newspaper urges anti-graft prosecutors to investigate not only international football transfers but also the ones between Romanian clubs.

Gandul reads that a demonstration of far-right movement the Hungarian Guard in Budapest was triggered by a recent incident involving a Romanian Gypsy aged 12, who killed a 17 year old Hungarian.

Protest organizers declared that Hungary will face an ethnic bomb if measures are not taken immediately. According to the Guard’s leader, Istvan Dosa, Hungary seriously lacks public safety.

The Guard thus protested against violence, more specifically against the violence committed by Gypsies of Romanian origin. In Dosa’s opinion, the latest case showed that the government lacked any power or ability to protect its citizens.

The newspaper reads that this is not the first time that the Guard protests against the Gypsy community in their country.

On the Romanian political stage, news are not comforting. Cotidianul put up a top ten list of absentee deputies in the Parliament. The newspaper’s results are that during February – October last year some 3,000 absentees were registered in the Parliament but no Parliamentarian was sanctioned because they all seem to be motivated.

House speaker Bogdan Olteanu said that it is job of political group leaders to motivate why their colleagues fail to show up at work.

Among the best performing absentees one can count parliamentarians with some 50 to 100 absences, closely followed by others with an average of 25.

When contacted, parliamentary group leaders explained that their members have many responsibilities in the territory and thus are forced to visit the people their represent.

In the world of football, Romania Libera urges anti-graft prosecutors, who last week launched procedures to indict several high profile football moguls over a series of international transfers involving Romanian clubs to push investigations towards transfers between Romanian football clubs as well.

Ten most important people in Romanian football are being investigated for a total prejudice of 10 million euro. However, the newspaper reads that most illegal transactions happen in the domestic first league, as the money vanish easier but are harder to justify.

To support the argument, the paper puts forward an internal transfer from one team to another that led to a prejudice of 2.44 million dollars at a football club in Bucharest.

Even if anti-graft prosecutors are familiar with the case and are investigating it, it seems that it got deadlocked.