What the newspapers say: January 26, 2007

Resident-player Basescu seems to take seriously the press: he finally kept quiet for a couple of days. What could have been seen as a sign of peace is still neglected by Liberals, who won’t stop attacking Basescu.

While being interested mainly in Ceausescu’s spies, the newspapers find some room for the never-ending political scandal, but do it in a more professional manner than usually, pointing at the negative economic effects of the president – prime minister war.

„The politicians’ circus freezes the economy”, is the title in Jurnalul National.

„The stock exchange is dropping, the country rating remains the same, although the conditions necessary for improvement were met, the European funds still can’t be accessed because of legislation void, while the privatization process is in clinical death”, the paper accuses.

Meanwhile, Democrats say that Liberals practice a „banana-country-type of politics”, in case the party would really support the move to suspend president Basescu, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

Liberals recently said they support the idea to modify the Referendum Law, so that a president could be suspended regardless the number of people who vote.

Meanwhile, other laws cause chaos in the economy. The stock brokers in Bucharest and Sibiu went on strike for an hour on Thursday, because the state imposed taxes without taking into account the possibility for a broker to lose in the stock market game.

Brokers are about to file a complaint against the Finance Ministry at the European Stock Exchanges’ Federation, Gandul reads.

Foreign investors don’t get scared easily,, one might say, after finding out that even under these circumstances, major players from the international banking system are about to bring their businesses to Romania.

The opening of branches of JP Morgan International Bank Limited, JP Morgan Europe Limited, Citibank International plc, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Erste Bank, Lombard Odier DarierHentsch Private Bank Limited and Credit Suisse Luxemburg may put some pressure on the interest rate in Romania, Cotidianul comments.

„Romania, still on the map for foreign investors”, is the title in Evenimentul Zilei. According to a banking expert, 5.3 million euros are to be expected yearly as direct investments until 2009, lower than 2006’s 8.3 millions, but still significant.

Well, we need all the money we can get, just to spend it unwisely. The Danube dam designed to protect the neighboring villages in the Bentu area was built with 27 billion ROL and is about to crumble to mud, Romania Libera reads.

Or we need the money to keep paying incompetent or weird public servants. Police officials don’t know they should prevent the spies in the Strategic Privatizations file (judged without being kept in prison) from seeing each other, Gandul informs.

Even more hilarious, the prosecutor that allowed Omar Hayssam to flee to an unknown country says he doesn’t regret any decision he made in the case, according to Adevarul.

Beside being a controversial businessman, investigated for bribes and tax evasion, Hayssam was also the first to be judged for terrorism in Romania, after his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq.

To end in a happier note: a judge in Vaslui is subject to a penalty that equals 15% of her income for the next three months, after her colleagues accused her of witchcraft.

„We come o work to find salt, pepper, dirt and unknown liquids on our desks and drawers”, some of the other judges in the court complained, according to Adevarul.

Romania, the ethereal…