What the newspapers say: February 25, 2008

Early elections look more and more plausible, despite the fact that Prime Minister Tariceanu firmly rejected the idea one week ago, when it was suggested by the Opposition leader, Mircea Geoana. With or without elections, Romania remains unattractive for workers abroad and any attempt of the Romanian state to solve the problem of the domestic labor force crisis seems doomed since the very beginning. But life is not either better not safer abroad. A moving and touching story about children separated from their family for „being too good in school” makes Italians accuse themselves their authorities of kidnapping the minors.

Tariceanu prepares himself an early disembarking – Cotidianul reads in the front page opening. Local and general elections kept at the same time – an idea already suggested and rejected by PM Tariceanu – seems to gain more and more ground, at Tariceanu himself, but also among other Liberal leaders.

Evenimentul Zilei points at the fact that Romanians in Italy can not be attracted back home, because the job fair only offers jobs for men. Gandul enlarges upon the subject and shows that Romanian who worked for several years in Italy already have a different view on what they deserve: „Let’s say you give me 700 euro a month. But for what schedule? 8, 10, 12 hours per day? How much of the wage is put down on the labor card and sees insurances taxes and social contributions paid? Where will I live during the project? Is there hot water?”. These are a few of the questions raised by Romanians in Italy, at the first state-organized job fair.

Despite the fact that things are not shining in Italy – less work, very few public funds words, and those stuck because of the political instability, but most of all – the families. Romanian women in Italy work hard, cleaning houses, assisting old people or taking care of children. They earn some 1,000 euro per month, while the money earned by their husbands are saved, Gandul reads.

The Democrat-Liberal Youth elected Elena Basescu, daughter of president Basescu, as president, with 377 votes in favor and 2 against. The media seems fascinated with the easiness in having a girl / daughter elected in such a position. „Democrat – liberals, obsessed with the Basescu brand”, is the title in Evenimentul Zilei, while „Gandul” believes that Elena Basescu is an „in-house success”.

In business:

– Real estate developers demand incentives in order to invest on the Romanian market (Gandul)

– Romania imported 3 billion euro worth of food in 2007 (Cotidianul)

„Bonus” story: Italians scandalized with children kidnapped by authorities in Rimini

Four months ago, three children were taken from their family because someone decided that their mother was too severe. The only evidence authorities had were the good grades in school. Jurnalul National publishes a wide article about the way the children live now, in an orphanage.

The only good news is that event he Bologna Immigration Office considers the story a „minors’ sequestration”.

For the past four months, a boy has to whisper his every night prayer, the way he learnt is from his mother and grandparents, because the caretakers in the orphanage forbid him to speak in any other language then Italia. Nurses complain about his stubbornness, wishing he didn’t say his prayer. Not in Romania, anyway. They are also amazed that the children use the fork and knife to eat and ask for permission to leave the table.

The children’s’ teachers were not allowed to testify in court. The mother was not announced when the Social Service took the children from school and was in shock for a few hours when they never came out from their classes. „We didn’t warn her so she wouldn’t run away with the kids”, officials explained. The social assistant report indicated „lack of motherly love”. The document was signed by a 24-year old woman without children or husband, without quoting any witnesses, pretending that a children abuse hotline was notified. The hotline service denied the information. In the same report, the assistant says she „heard” that the mother used to watch her kids in school through a window, with a baseball bat in her hand. The children were studying at the second floor, making it impossible and no one in the school has ever seen the mother with a baseball bat.

The mother keeps sending her kids clothes and shoes and finds them every time dirty and wearing with old, torn shoes.

A story that – it seems – is far from an end, since orphanage employees told the mother that „the more fuss she causes, the later she’ll get the kids”.