What the newspapers say: February 26, 2009

The long way home has begun for the Romanian immigrants in Italy, several Romanian newspapers read, quoting the Italian central newspapers. But it seems that nothing good awaits them – many Romanians would gladly move to another city, in search for a better job. Meanwhile, politicians fantasize about how they could make some money for the budget, without demanding an international loan. Renting the Danube Delta or selling clean air are just two solutions suggested on Wednesday.

The head of Social Democrats (PSD, one of the two governing parties), Mircea Geoana, believes that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has not become more „human” since its last contact with the Romanian government, and claims that Romania should avoid demanding a loan from the institution. Conservative leader Dan Voiculescu suggests a lease for a limited time for the Danube Delta, which would bring 300 million Euros for the state budget. Economy Minister Adriean Videanu believes that Romania should better sell its clean air share for 2 billion Euros, Gandul reads. Still, most officials – including the Finance Minister, the president and the Central Bank Governor – say that a foreign loan might prove to be the best solution.

In politics, the best news is that the procedures were simplified in the Romanian Parliament, in order to allow parliamentarian suspects to be sent to Court. The number of votes required in order to approve the sending of a file from prosecutors to Court, after the Parliament’s approval, decreased from absolute majority to half plus one of the votes out of the number of deputies and senators participating in the session, Cotidianul reads, in an article called „The last week of immunity for Adrian Nastase” (note: Romania’s former Prime Minister, accused of corruption).

In business, the frailty of jobs makes 41.55% of all Romanians declare that they would move to another city, in order to obtain a better salary, a recent online poll conducted by MyJob unveils, according to Cotidianul. 13% would even move to another country. Out of the remaining percentage, 23% say they would have to refuse to move, because of their families.

The only good thing that happens in Romania because of the crisis is the significant relief in the hellish traffic in Bucharest. With an increasing number of people choosing to save money and use public transportation, with less and less taxi cabs in the street and with more and more cars returning to the leasing companies because of the payment delays, the traffic in Bucharest returned close to normal, Romania Libera found out.