What the newspapers say: November 17, 2009

Presidential candidate Social Democrat Mircea Geoana used the Army’s personal data files in electoral purposes, one newspaper reveals on Tuesday. Bucharest subway employees affect 300,000 travelers today, as they organize a general strike from 5 am to 4 pm and freeze all underground transport. Elsewhere in the news, Romania’s Tourism Ministry paid 100,000 euro to appear in TUI catalogs and another 40,000 euro for Dertour.

Evenimentul Zilei reads about the Social Democratic (PSD) presidential candidate Mircea Geoana who used the Army’s personal data files for electoral purposes. More precisely, he surprised retired officers with personalized electoral letters in which he urged them to vote for him, as Supreme Commander of the Army.

The big surprise was that the letter contained the exact name, surname, function and the address of each person – an undeniable sign that he had access to the Army’s official database, the newspaper reads.

Most of the retired military personnel did not appreciate Mircea Geoana’s „effort” to write to them personally, at home and thus submitted a formal complaint at the Defense ministry. Geoana could not be reached.

Cotidianul reads that the Bucharest underground transport will be closed today from 5am to 4 pm due to the employees’ general strike. The strike will affect about 300,000 citizens travelling each day with the subway.

The general strike follows the failed negotiations yesterday between Metrorex union leaders and Interim Transports minister Radu Berceanu. Union representatives declared that their protests aim at convincing authorities to sign another collective work contract because the previous one expired at November 1. Moreover, they also claim a 20% salary increase.

Interim Transports minister declared that he will contest the strike at court considering the November 16, 2005 precedent when the court ended the Metrorex strike after just two days. The minister explained that he offered to maintain revenues for one month or one and a half months until the 2010 budget is known and when negotiations are possible.

Elsewhere in the news, Romanian Tourism ministry paid 100,000 euro to appear in TUI catalogs and 40,000 euro for Dertour ones, Gandul reads. Due to the crisis the number of German tourists visiting Romania decreased by 15% in 2009.

Romanian offers occupy about 25 pages in the Dertour catalogue, together with other countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. The 40,000 euro paid by the ministry covers 350,000 catalogues which will reach 10,000 agencies.

Dertour general director Radu Colfescu declared that in 2008 the company brought in Romania over 2,500 German tourists. The crisis however decreased the number of foreign tourists in Romania.

The best sold destination is the seaside, Colfescu declared. Now, Germans can fly with Air Berlin from Nurnberg to Constanta, Romania’s seaside area.