What the newspapers say: November 3, 2006

Romania prepares for the European Union accession. This means a scandal for each official designated for Brussels, political controversies, open war between lobby groups, pathetic complaints on how Romanians would rather kill and steal than work, public international quarrels and more of this kind. Meanwhile, the rich get richer.

The 300 richest Romanians are worth one fifth of the Gross National Product, with a total wealth of some 22 billion euros, Evenimentul Zilei found out, although the official top has yet to be published by the Capital magazine.

The mystery of Omar Hayssam’s getaway is solved by the same Evenimentul Zilei: the millionaire terrorist fled the country using a fake passport with the data of a small businessman in Buzau, who lives by selling Chinese t-shirts and Turkish jeans. Isn’t it ironic?

Since the arrests and interrogations are the salt and pepper of every day, we should also mention that the recently arrested president of the Human Rights Protection Organization (OADO) got rich through influence trafficking.

According to Cotidianul, Florentin Scaletchi acted as a liaison between decision making persons and interlopers. The one who complained about his actions says he paid Scaletchi 20,000 euros in order to intervene in a trial and obtain an easier sentence.

Speaking of judges, Gandul finds the seeds of a future scandal: one of the judges nominated for a seat in the European Court has problems back home, being one of the six officials involved in a scandal involving money from the Football Federation.

We might not have good judges, but the nurses are a bless: Ireland is about to imitate UK and impose special conditions for Romanian workers, still keeps its gates open for nurses, IT specialists and construction workers, Gandul reads.

For those who decide not to emigrate, things are about to lose their pink shade in Romania. The current account deficit may soon affect the currency exchange rate, after reaching 11% of the GNP, instead of the estimated 8.7%.