What the newspapers say: December 14, 2009

The crisis is worse than the blizzard: 36% unemployment rate. Elsewhere in the news, Basescu won despite invalid votes. Further in the news, the Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry supplemented the number of bulletins in the Diaspora, thus premeditating the electoral tourism overseas. Last but not least, Romanian ballerina Alina Cojocaru, dancing for the Royal Opera House in London, performed her way into the top decade’s best dances.

After a year of governance under the Boc cabinet, the crisis is worse than the blizzard: 36% unemployment rate, Cotidianul reads, informing that 2.6 million Romanians able to work are not listed with any of the state’s institution. Official statistics regarding the unemployment rate in Romania read 7.5% in November, meaning that the active population is 92.5%. According to the National Employment Agency, the number of active population counts 9.1 people, with 0.68% unemployed and 5.8 million employed. It results in 2.62 million Romanians not listed in any of the two categories.

They could be working on the black labour market, may be part of the population earning a living from agriculture, or emigrated. They represent 28.79% of the active population. In June, the Romanian National Employment Agency reported a 6% unemployment rate, while the European Office for Statistics Eurostat issued a higher figure: 6.4%. The International Work Office considers unemployed all those who have looked for work and studied work offers, not only people registered with employment agencies. This considered, Cotidianul believes the unemployment rate in Romania could add up to 36%.

Basescu won despite invalid votes: Gandul informs that the final results will be made public on Monday, by 3 pm, according to the Constitutional Court rule. The re-count took place in two stages. The first one lasted for 18 hours and the Central Electoral Office (BEC) members gave in with fatigue. Out of the 138,476 invalid voted, it has been discovered that 2,137 were valid: 1,169 were in favour of Traian Basescu, while 968 were in favour of Mircea Geoana. The votes overseas are still to be counted.

BEC headquarters was guarded by police forces and several bodyguards. Only vote packages and catering staff were allowed in. A Romanian-German citizen Petru Bucur-Volk, who had previously bombarded BEC with petitions even before the second round, was tolerated on the corridors. He claimed the recount should take place in the presence of mass-media or anyone wishing to see the process.

Cotidianulreads that the Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry supplemented the number of bulletins in the Diaspora, thus it premeditated the electoral tourism overseas. Voters in Belgium received 799 more bulletins, in Switzerland +2.000, in France +1.006, Italy +24.304(!), Luxembourg +1.200, Germany +1.591 and San Marino +500. Reporters say this was not necessary because the number of voters attending each of these sections did not go over 25% of the number of already allocated bulletins. But the distance between some of the sections set up in the named countries were short, and therefore the decision encouraged electoral tourism.

The number of voters in the above countries increased in the second round at the polls. Whether it is a coincidence or not, 95% of those coming at the polls on December 6 voted for Traian Basescu. PSD deputy Nicolae Banicioiu said the party had asked for the ID numbers of the voters in Diaspora but the request was rejected. PSD also requested the video tape from the Romanian Embassy in Paris because they did not believe that 3,785 voters could have all exercised their vote in 14 hours. But their second request was rejected as well. On 22 November, 2,340 Romanians came to the embassy in Paris to vote and the schedule was extended for an additional hour to allow everyone already queuing to vote.

Romanian ballerina Alina Cojocaru, dancing for the Royal Opera House in London, performed her way into the decade’s best dances with her role in Giselle, Romania Libera reads. According to Times Online, she ranked 10th. Quoting the British publication, Romania Libera reads that Cojocaru had a great debut and was promoted to first-ballerina rank at the early age of 19, the youngest in the Royal Ballet history.

Alina Cojocaru was born on May 27 1981 in Bucharest. She studied in Kiev for seven years and perfected her art since 1997, with the Royal Ballet school in London, after winning the Lausanne Award. She then danced in the Kiev Ballet Company and later returned to London, where she became first ballerina, according to Romanian press agency Mediafax. Alina Cojocaru first appeared on a Romanian stage in 2002, with the main role in Giselle. In 2004, she was designated best ballerina in the Monaco Dance Forum Festival. She mainly plays in classical ballet, like Giselle, The Swans’ Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Coppelia etc.