What the newspapers say: January 22, 2007

Romanian newspapers on Monday prepare for a tough week with exhaustive reports on political moves sparked by the unprecedented clash between the government and the presidency last week. They also discuss the troubles Romania faces in Brussels because of a new tax for drivers.

And Chinese workers in a Romania-based factory revolting against the management with forks and spoons raise a few eyebrows as well.

Gandul reports that the clash between President Traian Basescu and PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu and the prospect of early elections have sparked disputes between the head of state and his traditional supporters in the Democratic Party-PD.

According to the newspaper, while the PD proves not sure about what to do with their stand in the governing coalition, a new political group, the Liberal Democrats-PLD, gave their full support for Basescu in public stands over the past two days.

The PLD is formed mostly of representatives of a dissident movement within the National Liberal Party-PNL. PNL is led by PM Tariceanu but forced to share power with the PD since the 2004 elections.

Evenimentul Zilei reports that while the PD has entered a phase of silenzio stampa, PM Tariceanu does not miss any occasion to attack the Democrats and President Basescu.

At a congress of another party last weekend, Tariceanu warned that Basescu was trying to establish an authoritarian, Belarus-style regime in Bucharest and that was now picking the fruits of his efforts lately – “a collective hysteria”.

Cotidianul says the opposition Social Democratic Party-PNL were not wasting time either, setting a shadow government forming of 16 ministries, each with its own head.

According to the newspaper, most of the shadow ministers raise serious doubts about their past – not that it would matter a lot, since there had been several such attempts to establish a shadow cabinet before, but with little success.

And Romania libera publishes an extensive analysis trying to establish a connection between each of the party involved in the ongoing scandal with major forces currently operating on the grand geopolitical map – Russia, the US and the EU – over sensitive issues such as the big money and energy independence.

Meanwhile, newspapers focus on the fate of new taxes established by the Romanian government for car drivers.

Gandul reports that Romania will have to abandon its new “first registration tax” for new cars no matter what in the coming years as the European Commission will push for the introduction of an environment tax for all car owners in the Union, to replace the current taxes for the use of roads or for car registration.

As far as Cotidianul goes, the EC will not wait for it new tax to be applied before it clears things up in Romania. According to the newspaper, the Commission will take Romania to court for breaching the EU treaties unless it removes the abusive terms from the legislation concerning the first-registration tax.

The same Cotidianul reports that the Romanian Lottery has become the playing field for the small Conservative Party, a political group that has withdrawn from the governing coalition.

The Lottery employed and army of counselors without a contest, and many people close to the PC leadership thus obtained jobs under the wing of Lottery head Liliana Ghervasuc, also a member of the PC.

And Gandul writes that about 200 Chinese workers employed at a textile factory in Bacau, eastern Romania, have attacked their general manager with forks and spoons yesterday, demanding higher salaries.

The newspaper quotes manager Sorin Nicolescu, who claims the workers have been taunted into launching such a strike by the company that recruited them in China, which makes nice commissions based on the salaries of such workers.