What the newspapers say: July 22, 2008

Political parties push forward their PM nominations in an attempt to increase their popularity for the upcoming parliamentary elections, one newspaper reads on Tuesday. Elsewhere in the news, the health system is on the verge of crashing as the pill-crisis reaches its peak. Last but not least, Romanians have already forgotten the benefits of hormone-free vegetables.

Evenimentul Zilei reads that all political parties started to push forward their possible nominations for the Prime Minister seat, in an attempt to raise the popularity of the party in parliamentary elections this fall.

No party seems to take its chance since all nominate party leaders with experience and gained popularity: Democrat Liberals push for Theodor Stolojan, Social Democrats for Mircea Geoana and governing Liberals support their incumbent PM, Calin Popescu Tariceanu.

PDL head Emil Boc declared that the PM nominated by his party will be a Democrat Liberal from within the party. According to party sources, the future PM will not run for a seat in the parliament this fall. Quoted sources claim that PDL will support Theodor Stolojan who declared that he is ready to leave aside his term as member of the European Parliament in order to run for PM. However, nothing is official just yet.

In a common Social Democratic (PSD) and Conservative (PC) meeting, PSD leader Mircea Geoana proclaimed himself future PM and promised various functions within the administration. Moreover, Geoana already announced that should he become PM he would implement some social policies: raise average salary to 1000 Ron, build up 1,000 km of highway etc.

On the other political spectrum, Liberals seem to support their incumbent PM, Calin Popescu Tariceanu. However, most Liberals seem to be convinced that their PM will not get another term.

Elsewhere in the news, Romania’s health system is shaken up by the pills crisis, Gandul reads: at this moment all suppliers stopped delivering pills to pharmacies from the national list of compensated pharmaceutical products, leaving over 1 million people without their treatments.

Most affected are those suffering from cancer, diabetes, AIDS who cannot find the needed drugs in pharmacies. Due to this crisis, a hospital in Ploiesti, nearby Bucharest sent the cancer patients home because they do not have the treatments.

The main cause of this crisis is that authorities reduced the commissions to be added by suppliers and many errors found on the national lists which offer people free treatments. According to the Romanian news agency Mediafax, Health Minister Nicolaescu declared that he will check every Health institution in order to resolve the problem.

Thus, suppliers are pointing fingers towards the Health ministry, pharmacies point to suppliers and the Health Ministry points to its national agencies. However, sick people continue to lack any treatment, and are found in despair.

Last but not least, Romania libera reads that Romanians have already forgot the taste of hormone-free tomato. More and more vegetables and fruits present in supermarkets and markets taste bad but look great.

Experts quoted by the newspaper read that imported vegetables are treated with hormones or other chemical substances and exposed to radiations. Moreover, the newspaper reads that Romanian producers started to buy imported seeds just because the results are impressive in terms of production but the nutritive quality decreases.

Oftentimes, Romanian producers irresponsibly treat vegetables with chemical substances which can cause cancer. Agriculture ministry officials declare that small producers need to have special consultants when using chemical substances. However, this rarely happens.