What the newspapers say: April 16, 2008

Liberal leaders accuse PM Tariceanu of making secret deals with their mortal enemy, president Traian Basescu. at the same time, newspapers find out once again compromising information about politicians but, as usual, the scandal will „die at birth”. In a grand total, it is a day with more political news than usual, a clear sign that parties start making preparations for the local elections.

The Liberal leaders claim that prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu nominated the new Foreign Minister, Lazar Comanescu, after reaching an agreement with president Traian Basescu. Anyway, it is clear that Tariceanu did not open consultations with his party members before making a decision. Evenimentul Zilei reminds that Comanescu is a familiar figure for president Basescu and that two years ago, the new Foreign Minister was on the list of „dinosaurs” to be replaced by the Tariceanu Government. Liberals took the opportunity to remind that a same lack of consultation was seen when the new Justice Minister, Catalin Predoiu, was named.

In the social area, the most important piece of news is that the Galati Court decided that the general strike at ArcelorMIttal is illegal, since accidents may take place in case the employees do not return to work, same Evenimentul Zilei reads. The general strike was opened on Monday, soon after the general strike at the Renault-owned Automobile Dacia ended.

In politics, Social Democrat Senator Sorin Oprescu decided to run for the Bucharest Mayor office by himself, after his parte decided to support in the race former Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu. Oprescu says he will resign from the party, in order to make things legal and to avoid competing against former colleagues, Gandul notes.

Speaking of candidates: Romania Libera X-rays the candidates for local councils and finds that most of them are or have been under investigation or even have criminal files opened against them. The newspaper describes the group of candidates as revived dinosaurs, cardboard businessmen, political hitch-hikers, old and new barons of county slave-masters.

Also in the controversial characters area: the youngest Democrat – Liberal vice president, Cristian Boureanu, seems to be the new best rookie in the retrocession deals. An 82-year old Romanian woman living in France received after six years of waiting, her 3,000 square meters of land in the downtown of Sinaia, one of the most popular mountain destinations in Romania. She only got the terrain after signing a sale agreement with Boureanu, who paid 350,000 euro for it and instantly sold it for five times this price, Cotidianul found out. These truly become local elections to look forward to…