What the newspapers say: December 21, 2007

Transport Minister Ludovic Orban makes it to most of the front pages on Friday, in his attempt to avoid authorities in the case of an alleged car accident involving a 16-year old girl. In between, Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi admits, in an interview, that the activity of all prosecution offices in Romania is temporarily blocked.

„There is a moment of crisis in the Romanian prosecution offices”, says the chief prosecutor, pointing at the fact that there are very few prosecutors. For example, one of the local offices, the Horezu Prosecution Office, is „hibernating” because its only prosecutor became ill. In an interview for Gandul, Kovesi also complains about the fact that the main files regarding financial crimes are blocked due to the recent modifications of the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Code.

The rest of the newspapers are focused on the car accident involving minister Ludovic Orban. In Jurnalul National, Orban claims he never hit the alleged victim of the accident, but „found her crying on the other sidewalk”. In Jurnalul National, journalists point at the fact that Orban didn’t report the accident to the authorities after his own will, but was instead convoked by the head of the Road Police.

After Orban explains in several newspapers that he didn’t even hit any persons, Romania Libera quotes anonymous sources, saying that Orban did avoid the young girl, but still hit her with the side mirror, breaking her elbow.