What the newspapers say: May 20, 2009

Politicians compete in making post-electoral predictions as the 2009 Presidential elections approach, one newspaper reads on Wednesday. In business, Romanian billionaire Ion Tiriac cuts short any political enthusiasm and predicts that the real crisis is about to hit the country in about six months. IMF Romanian head warns that even though the IMF requirements were advantageous, reforms in the country should not be postponed. Lastly, Italian professors popularize Romanian culture and language.

In politics, Cotidianul reads about the Social Democratic leader, Mircea Geoana who announces that, if he wins this year’s presidential elections, he will appoint a new Prime Minister. In case he loses, Geoana announced that he will give up his mandate.

Geoana did not miss the chance to criticize his future main counter candidate, incumbent President Traian Basescu. Geoana declared that the main disappointed of Basescu is probably that he did not anticipated that the Social Democrats will have such an incisive attitude against the government.

Geoana admitted that his party might have made some mistakes but reassured that his party is looking to offer the needed political stability the country needs in times like this.

As it seems to be the case in the past months, economic issues loom over the political class pushing to more realistic terms, Gandul reads. Romanian billionaire Ion Tiriac warns in an interview for Romanian Business Magazin that the worse is about to come in Romania in the next six months.

In his first interview in the last three years, Tiriac declared that Romania was taken aback by the crisis. Nonetheless, he declared that he prepared for the worst well in advance so that now his 2 billion euro wealth is well guarded.

Tiriac declared that in times of crisis, labor is lost, which he qualifies as sad. He explained that the country will eventually get rid of the crisis, but the recovery rate will be slow. When prompted about his wealth, Tiriac declared that he has enough cash to wind the crisis but that he will still lose money.

In this vein, IMF Romanian head Tony Lybek warns that even though the IMF requirements were advantageous for Romania, reforms in the country should be stimulated, Gandul reads. Romania needs to take advantage of the grip offered by the IMF and push for reforms.

In the interview for the newspaper Lybek explained that the IMF agreement contained less conditions than what it is normally expected from the financial institution. The main reasons, according to Lybek are that rhe institution considered that the political class should assume the agreement than just have a comprehensive list of technical requirements.

Another reason, he said, is that the economic crisis is global and mainly financial which affects even more a country’s recovery terms. Therefore, the IMF’s main goal is to support countries not amplify the recession through restrictive measures.

Evenimentul Zilei reads about professors Marco Cugno and his student, Roberto Merlo who are teaching Romanian at the Turin Romanian Language Department. The newspaper reads that Cugno has popularized Romania’s culture in Italy and translated a lot of Romanian authors.

Cugno declared that both the Romanian and Italian media are too aggressive when portraying stories about their fellows in Italy. He added that Italian politicians failed to understand the necessary diplomatic measures needed when treating such issues.