What the newspapers say: March 13, 2007

Romanian newspapers on Tuesday proclaim the Government has broken as the prime minister decided to postpone European elections due to take place this year.

They also follow up with stories of friendship between the President’s brother and a controversial businessman, announce that a Romanian judicial issue has landed on the European Commission table and rings the alarm on the state of “dot ro” Internet.

The scission of the Government is the inevitable result of prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu’s decision yesterday to postpone the European elections until the second half of 2006, Cotidianul writes.

It reports that following this move the Democratic Party – which along Tariceanu’s Liberals form the bulk of the Government – may withdraw its support for Tariceanu within a week.

It also implies that PM’s option to take full responsibility for an ordinance postponing the election might be the last drop for President Traian Basescu, who demanded the Liberal Party to turn official its relationship with the opposition Social Democrats.

Gandul also pushes the idea of a parliamentary majority formed of the Liberals (PNL) and the three opposition parties, quoting Basescu: “If the prime minister believes he does well creating a PNL-PSD-PC-PRM majority, it is his option. I believe we face an act of serious political mystification”.

Evenimentul Zilei supports this point of view by noting that Tariceanu’s ordinance was signed by only two people: himself and the head of the Permanent Electoral Authority, Octavian Opris, a member of the opposition Social Democrats.

Jurnalul National reports that President Basescu’s efforts to join a government session where the decision was made resulted in trouble. Not only that the prime minister waited for him to leave before claiming to have opened the official session, but the head of state was also prevented to attend the meeting accompanied by his aides.

Meanwhile, newspapers such as Evenimentul Zilei continue their reports on the links between President Traian Basescu’s brother, Mircea Basescu, and businessman Bogdan Buzoianu, an “energy mogul” involved in shady energy dealings with the state in the past.

The newspaper argues their relationship is rather strong and that Mircea Basescu – who’s been alleged to have used his food production firm to run energy contracts with Buzoianu – has changed his statements regarding his business partner at least three times since last week.

Gandul also reports that Mircea Basescu faced the media to clear things up yesterday, but would not reveal whether his firm, PlusFood SRL, was allowed to run energy contracts.

He also appealed the Dutch shareholders of the firm to understand the situation and not withdraw from the business because of “political meddling in the business environment”.

Elsewhere in the papers, Cotidianul reports that a group of NGOs have sent a letter to European Commissioner Franco Frattini asking the EC to closely monitor the situation created last week when a top anti-graft official was dismissed by the Interior Ministry in Bucharest.

The withdrawal of Marian Santion from the helm of the ministry-controlled DGA anti-graft department was a threat to reform and to the fight against corruption in Romania, the letter shows.

The same Cotidianul reports that the “dot ro” zone is one of the most problematic on the Internet as many domain names inspired by big brands such as Ferrari, Nivea or Marlboro are registered here by people who have nothing to do with those businesses.