What the newspapers say: April 28, 2009

Romanians won’t buy cars, apartments or terrain this year, because of the crisis, a recent study indicates. In politics, Democrat Liberals fall to the second place in a poll for the future European elections. In business, Romania proves to be unable to spend environment-related funds, but is eager to invest in building two airports a few feet away from one another.

Some 80% of all Romanians are certain that they won’t buy a new car or a real estate property this year, a study by Synovate reveals. Even more, 60% of them fear unemployment, 71% fear the fall of the national currency, leu, and 62% fear the more expensive credits, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

At the same time, the real estate market remains blocked, despite the fact that prices for older apartments fell some 50%, compared to the market peak last year, Cotidianul adds.

In politics, the Democrat – Liberal Party (PDL) lost the first place in the voters’ preferences, being surpassed by the Conservative – Social Democrat Alliance (PSD-PC). 30% of the voters would prefer PSD in the race for the European Parliament, while Democrat Liberals would gain only 26%. PDL loses some percents because the president’s daughter, Elena Basescu, had quit the party an runs as independent, „stealing” some 4% of the PDL votes, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

In the city of Brasov, the political quarrel over the future location of the airport was solved in a typical Romanian way: Brasov will have two airports, 30 meters far from one another: a larger one, planned by Liberals and Social Democrats, and a smaller one, planned by the Democrat Liberals, Cotidianul found out.

At the same time, Romania failed to spend 21.6 million Euros from its environment projects fund. Even more, Romania is one step away from failing to keep its promise regarding the ecological city dumps: only 20 were built in the past four years, instead of 65, as Romania committed in front of the European Union, Jurnalul National reads.