What the newspapers say: March 27, 2008

As local elections approach, all parties begin to send their messages. Although there are no polls to point clearly at who is leading in popularity or voting intention, each party fantasizes about how they will lead by themselves after the elections. The other hot subject of the day, the NATO summit, unveils one of Romania’s biggest problems: the never-ending hypocrisy. During the NATO summit, the „fat” policemen are not allowed to stay in traffic. And there are a lot of policemen with „beer bellies”.

Liberal-Democrat leader Valeriu Stoica estimates, in an interview for Cotidianul, that the Social Democrats (the main Opposition party) have no chance to participate in the future Government, after the general elections this year. Even more, Stoica believes that governing Liberals will confront a huge image problem when Calin Popescu Tariceanu will have to quit his prime-minister office.

Of course, on the other hand, everything goes well for everybody. Social Democrat leader Mircea Geoana even finds the force to state in Gandul that the Social-Democrat party will rule by itself after the election, since it is bound to win. The party signed yesterday an alliance with 4 non-existing parties, all placed well below the 1% level in popularity – the Ecologists, the Green Party, the Social-Democrats (Titel Petrescu branch) and the Socialist Alliance. This explains the title in Gandul: „PSD and the four dwarfs”.

The only good news on Thursday is that Romanians may be able to visit the US without needing any visa, starting in 2009, in case a Memorandum is signed this fall, within the Visa Waiver program, Romania Libera reads.

last, but not least, the Interior Ministry has become a huge stage for policemen modeling, Gandul found out. Only the good-looking cops will be allowed to control the traffic in Bucharest during the NATO summit. All fat policemen will stay at home. The paper searched the laws and found that the decision comes against the Anti-Discrimination Law and that such a measure could have been taken only in case the athletic shape would have had anything to do with their health of would be life-saving. But, since is only about controlling the traffic, the only criteria should be the professional experience and the competence.