What the newspapers say: November 26, 2007

All newspapers on Monday read about a turnout as low as 29% for the first European Parliament elections that took place in Romania and 23% for the referendum organized this Sunday.

Romania libera reads about the new political arrangements with Democrats leading with 32%, Social Democrats with 22%, Liberals with 16% and Liberal Democrats with 7% and Hungarian Democrats with 6% after the European Parliamentary elections.

The newspaper quotes experts arguing that the failure to validate the referendum due to the low turnout will cut loose the string that connects President Basescu with his electorate.

However, according to exit polls some 80% of the Romanians present at the vote favor the uninominal voting system put forward by the President. Thus, the paper argues that political parties should have as primary concern passing the law – considering the upcoming national Parliamentary elections.

On the other hand, experts argue that the low turnout signals a worrying apathy of the Romanian voters.

Cotidianul reads about the Democrats and their victory in the European Parliamentary elections. Party leader, Emil Boc says that the Democrats are the new force in Romania, since it received the majority of votes.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Conservatives and Extremists failed to reach the 5% threshold according to the latest exit polls.

Experts estimate that the European Parliament representatives are as follows: 14 Democrats, 9 Social Democrats, 7 Liberals, 2 Liberal Democrats, 2 Hungarian Democrats and 1 independent, Laszlo Tokes.

Gandul reads about the unsuccessful campaign of the President to convince citizens to vote at the referendum. The newspaper argues that Social Democrats are on the verge of changing the leadership of the party, in an attempt to regain more political capital.

All newspapers read that parties were satisfied and surprised with the vote of confidence received yesterday at the polls.

Evenimentul Zilei reads about the incapacity of the political actors to mobilize their electorate at the polls. Moreover, the newspaper adds that extremist party leader, Vadim Tudor announced he would resign from the Parliament after his party received 3.6% of the votes.

He urged all his party members in the Parliament to follow his gesture.