What the newspapers say: October 27, 2010 

​All newspapers on Wednesday announce the protests downtown Bucharest as Parliamentarians prepare to vote the motion of censure initiated by the opposition. Elsewhere in the news, the government coalition and IMF representatives was a fiasco.

Unions gather up 100,000 people at the protest downtown Bucharest and all newspapers read that this will be the biggest protest after the revolution. Romania libera reads that union leaders declared that people will demand the resignation of the government.

Union leaders initially announced that they will gather 80,000 people but these days they appealed to all unsatisfied groups – retired, students etc to join their protest. Unions will gather in Victoriei square, in front of the government where they will protest for an hour and then march towards the Constitutiei square.

The newspaper reads that two days before the protests, some institutions threatened their employees that if they will attend the protests, they will get laid off. Several such examples were put forward by the president of the national union block, Dumitru Costin who said that there are many people who complained of the same treatment.

The transports authority made pressures to transports companies to cancel contracts with union leaders to transport them to Bucharest. He added that such incidents were noted in Brasov, Iasi, Alba, Braila, Teleorman, Arges counties.

Gandul warns that Bucharest will be paralyzed by the protest. Aside from unions, PSD members will also attend. The newspaper reads that the opposition parties managed to activate members to join the protest.

Thousands, possibly tens of thousands of members or supporters of the party will arrive in Bucharest to protest together with the unions. Tens of buses ordered by Social Democrats across the country will arrive in Bucharest.

The newspaper’s journalists, incognito talked to many PSD local leaders who told them how many people they are sending to Bucharest. The journalist reads that most of them talked openly about their organization struggles and many complained that the transports authority pressured transports companies not to take protesters to Bucharest.

Elsewhere in the news, Gandul reads that leaders of the governing coalition and IMF representatives argued for two and a half hours in a meeting which was a total fiasco. Leader of the national minorities in the Parliament, Varujan Pambuccian declared for the newspaper that he felt he was talking to a wall, that whatever he was saying, the IMF representatives said the same thing.

The general conclusion was that everybody got really upset and irritated. As Romanian politicians talked about plans to increase minimum salaries next year, to reduce social contributions, IMF representatives, according to the Deputy, reacted with classic slogans where solutions were to counter corruption, counter fiscal evasion and take up more EU funds.

He told the newspaper that what the IMF put forward has medium term effects while what Romanian politicians want, are direct effects. The IMF officials, according to the newspaper consider the increase of the minimum salary a waste for the budget.