What the newspapers say: March 2, 2011
The chance of reform within the governing Democratic Liberal Party, the car model to be produced by Ford in Craiova, Romania, claims over one of Brancusi’s Miss Pogany copies, the fate of ethnic Romanians in Serbia and Romanian citizens at the hand of Somali pirates are some issues discussed by Romanian newspapers on Wednesday.
Evenimentul Zilei analyzes the chances of three reformists who can now run for the governing Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) leadership. PDL has eliminated a provision that prevents members with less than five years from running for party leadership, and the move allows reformists such as Monica Macovei, Cristian Preda and Sever Voinescu to put up their plans for the group. The paper discusses with top PDL officials who are split in their support of the three: while some say Macovei, Preda and Voinescu have influence outside the party and is time to turn it into influence within the group, others have protested their rise, with PDL official Cristian Boureanu going as far as to say that when it comes to reform, both Lenin and Stalin depicted themselves as reformists.
Evenimentul Zilei also discusses the Ford B-Max, the future Ford model to be produced at the Craiova, South Romania plant starting next year. Gandul newspaper discusses the competition as well, showing that Ford B-Max will rival Opel Meriva. According to the paper, the B-Max has the support of ex-Romanian PM Calin Popescu tariceanu and of former Finance minister sebastian Vladescu who both spoke favorably of the new car.
Elsewhere in the news, Adevarul reads that a Bucharest woman is trying to obtain in court one of the two original copies of Constantin Brancusi’s Miss Pogany bronze sculptures. According to the paper, the copy is valued at two million euro and is now in the care of the Dolj County Council. The claimant says her father was politically pressed to sell the Miss Pogany sculpture to the Craiova Museum of Art in the seventies.
Adevarul also publishes a report on the lives of ethnic Romanians in Serbia. The reporter tells how he spent two days in Serbia’s Timoc Valley and unless he stopped to speak with the people he would have had no idea Romanians were living there. That is because it is common for Romanians there to live, get married and be buried in Serbian, to carry Serbian names, to not have one minute of Radio show in Romania and to have no idea of high profile Romanians such as poet Mihai Eminescu or historic figure Michael the Great.
Last but not least, Romania libera reads that three of the hostages currently held by Somali pirates – who killed four US citizens recently – are Romanians who were on board of MV Dover cargo ship captured by the pirates on February 28. By then, the pirates had already captured 31 people and were holding 688 hostages.