What the newspapers say: October 15, 2008

Ongoing political scandals between the President and the Prime Minister of Romania are heralding the fall parliamentary elections, one newspaper reads on Wednesday. Elsewhere in the news, Romania’s General Police Department spent some 113,000,000 euro for overpriced Logan cars and other specialized cars. Last but not least, Gerard Depardieu’s son, Guillaume, died in Paris after a wrong diagnostic in Romanian hospitals.

All newspapers read about the new controversy between Romania’s President Traian Basescu and PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu. Romania’s Interior ministry approved a 113,000,000 bill for overpriced cars to improve the Romanian General Police Department’s stock, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

The sum is pretty hard to legitimize even by Gheorghe Popa, who approved and signed the 28 acquisition contracts from the same company, Ager Leasing IFN, one of the Interior ministry’s collaborators.

Yesterday, the list of acquisitions put an end to a meeting of the Superior Council of Defense, stirring up new controversies between President Basescu and members of the government. To be more specific, Basescu accused Interior minister Cristian David of the attempt to cover up the contracts by validating within the Council, where all information is classed as state secret.

Basescu declared that he ceased the meeting because he refuses to classify the contracts that attest the way public money is being spent within a ministry. Moreover, he added that the price of the acquired cars are three times their normal price.

At his turn, Romanian PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu declared that Basescu has already entered the electoral battle and he is using two institutions to create an artificial subject that incriminates the government right before the start of the electoral campaign.

Shortly after, sources of the Ministry declared that the control report demanded by the minister is almost done and will be sent shortly to anti-graft prosecutors.

Gandul takes up the same controversial subject and emphasizes the overpriced sums paid for the acquisition of cars. For example for the Logan car models the ministry paid 11,700 euro plus another 45,000 euro for the options preferred.

The newspaper reads that the contract was signed for the acquisition of 2,136 cars. Of these, some are BMW cars holding equipment of at least 60,000 euro each. President Basescu did not miss the opportunity to ask where does the government possess these amounts of money, alluding to the recent scandal on increasing teachers’ wages by 50%.

Last but not least, Cotidianul reads about the death of Gerard Depardieu’s son, Guillaume in Paris after Romanian doctors failed to diagnose him. The newspaper informs that Guillaume Depardieu was present in Romania to shoot a new film but felt ill on Friday.

After being transported from one medical unit to the other, in a serious bad condition, doctors failed to set a diagnose for his condition. It was only in France, where Guillaume was transported in a special sanitary airplane that his diagnostic was set: he suffered a septic shock caused by a simple pneumonia he contacted while in Romania.

Romanian doctors who saw the patient refused to talk to the press but Floreasca Hospital manager Claudiu Turculet declared that the patient received the best medical care. Moreover, he added that the French Embassy sent him a letter in which they thank the hospital for their efficiency.