What the newspapers say: November 10, 2010 

The President’s call to action triggered an internal political struggle with the opposition conditioning their support on the resignation of the Chamber of Deputies Speaker Roberta Anastase. Former presidential candidate Ninel Potarca was arrested for a fiscal evasion of 140,000 euro. Elsewhere in the news today, the Environment minister plans to increase car taxes starting 2011 in an attempt to get more money.

Most newspapers on Wednesday read about the President’s call for action towards all political parties to pass the laws required by the IMF/WB/EC which triggered even more internal turmoil.

The Social Democrats and Liberals conditioned their commitment to speed up the legislative process on the resignation of the Chamber of Deputies Speaker Roberta Anastase. However, the governing party is not going to succumb to the pressure.

The newspaper reads that PDL leader Adrian Videanu declared after a meeting with the President that they will support Roberta Anastase and will not give in to pressures.

Videanu underlined that the opposition has to understand it has a responsibility for the country and that the governing coalition only urges them to give up the blockage which they instated in the Parliament.

In the same vein, President Basescu’s plan is to suspend the opposition, Evenimentul Zilei reads. The governing party plans to change the rules in the Parliament so that it will be able to pass laws without a presence of the Opposition.

Sources declared for the newspaper that the governing party plans to mobilize all deputies for Monday and pass a new set of rules for the Parliament. This move will most probably generate a new dimension to the scandal, with the Opposition involving the Constitutional Court.

Even so, PDL will be able to pass all needed laws until the Court rules on the matter.

Elsewhere in the news, former presidential candidate Ninel Potarca was arrested accused of fiscal evasion of about 140,000 euro. Potarca was involved in about 10 penal cases, with prejudices of millions of dollars. In some cases, he escaped justice on grounds that he is not educated and is a Rroma and in others because his accounting papers burnt.

Potarca was accused that in 2009 he did not register several sums which prejudiced the state with over 500,000 lei. To clean up the mess, in February 2010 Potarca paid 30,000 lei to get rid of any evidence. Prosecutors arrested him temporary for 29 days.

Cotidianul reads about the decision of the Environment ministry to increase car taxes starting 2011 to increase funds in the Environment Funds and make green investments. The government will target the second hand market, which will be negatively affected by the decision.

Plus, even those who purchase new cars will be affected if the project will pass. The minimum tax will be 91 euro for a Euro 5 car for a 2 year old car. The maximum tax is 32,000 euro for registering a 20 year old car.