What the newspapers say: September 9, 2010 

Newspapers on Thursday read about President Traian Basescu’s declarations for a new television about reshuffling, Boc’s resignation and the Finance ministry. Elsewhere in the news, one newspaper reads that over 1000 school inspectors avoided the 25% cut of salaries. Last but not least, Romania’s most powerful brands are Borsec, Dacia and ProTV.

Most newspapers on Thursday read about President Basescu’s declarations in a news television show. Basescu admitted that if PM Boc decided to resign, he would have been in a great difficulty.

Gandul reads that the chief of state commented that the reshuffling was a solution to exit the inertia of the government and ensured that the decision was taken by the party entirely. He said he trusts the new team but told the press that the government did not convince him always.

He offered the new Finance minister a model to follow: namely former Finance minister Decebal Traian Remes, which the press criticized last night extensively. About Remes, the President said that he was oriented to solutions and was very efficient.

The President declared that the biggest deficit is in pensions and the way to launch the economy is to save 1.5 billion lei which would be targeted to investments.

Romania libera reads that most school inspectors in Romania, many of them named on political grounds managed to avoid the 25% salary cut that other professors had to endure. School inspectors offered themselves merit bonuses that made their salaries to only stand cuts of 10%.

In the last six months, the number of inspectors that were approved to receive merit bonuses increased by 63% compared to 2009 from 212 to 347. The counties where this phenomenon was registered were Valcea, Olt, Gorj and Buzau.

A school inspector that receives a merit bonus is not affected by the 25% salary cut. At the level of the country, the number of positions of inspectors and directors is 1085 while the number of merit bonuses received by them total 1166.

The newspaper puts forward two explanations: either there are only the best inspectors gathered who all deserve a merit bonus or the process of merit bonuses is offered as they are promoted to inspectors, without any consideration to merits.

The merit bonus is actually a form of acknowledging the merits of professors in the pre-university education system who obtained exceptional results at the Olympics and other national and international contests or introduced some innovative elements with a major impact over the educational system.

Borsec, Dacia, ProTV, Dorna, Poiana, Tmisoreana, Izvorul Minunilor, Cotnari, Ursus and BCR and the first ten names in a most powerful brands top. The top reveals that Romanians live to enjoy life, appreciate the wine, beer and the fun, Unlock Market Research managing partner Adina Vlad notes.

Borsec and Dorna were the first two non-alcoholic drinks in the top, Poiana, Rom, Kandia, Primola and Magura are the most powerful sweets brands, Dacia, BCR and BRD are considered the most powerful brands for services products and the best media brands are ProTV, Kiss FM, Antena 1.