What the Newspapers Say: September 25, 2006

Some might say that the Francophone Summit in Bucharest and the country report scheduled for tomorrow are matters important enough to get the front pages in most of the newspapers. Well, they don’t, since more and more information on the Ceausescu’s former political police, Securitate, continue to make the news.

“Romania’s Last Run Towards Europe - Accession Receives Green Light Tomorrow”, is the most significant coverage for tomorrow’s historic event in Brussels, and Evenimentul Zilei seems to be the only paper really interested in the story.

Accession is a must, but the “return to the European family” will be doubled by the specter of activating the safeguarding clauses. The report expected tomorrow is the fruit of seven years of negotiations and reforms.

Although the accession is important, the same Evenimentul Zilei dedicates a similar printing area to a forgotten subject, now revived by investigative journalists - banks going bankrupt.

Among the dozens of banks that shook up the system between 1990 and 2000, one always seemed untouchable: Bancorex, the bank took over by the state after its bankruptcy and transformed in one of the most desirable banks in Eastern Europe: the Romanian Commercial Bank, also one of the state’s best privatization examples.

Thanks to the new information, we now know that most of the operations leading to its fall were credits offered to one another by former Securitate officers. Not a secret, yet never proven before.

In the same note, Adevarul opens an investigation on the fabulous ICE Dunarea, the only foreign trade company during Ceausescu’s time, a company where the legendary “Ceausescu’s money” was gathered.

Constantin Rotaru, former deputy director in the Foreign Information Service (after 1989), Dan Voiculescu, president of the Conservative Party, Theodor Stolojan, former prime minister and recently expelled member of the Liberals’ board, Barry George, recently involved in the “Frigates’ Scandal” that shook the UK are just a few names in the file
Still, there is hope for the former Securitate officers now active in politics.

As Gandul reads, the recent suggestion to eliminate the “political police” phrase from all verdicts would help politicians avoid criminal trials, if accepted
So, we integrate Securitate officers in the EU structures.

So what? Adevarul has a feature story that should postpone the accession for at least another five years: in a village near Giurgiu, HIV infected children are often beaten by the clinic’s employees and are denied access to emergency treatments.

But, since democracy is consolidated, is better for us to forget these matters, since extremists have a new reason to quarrel: Marko Bela, the president of the Hungarians’ Minority Party, returns with the same demands as 10 years ago: autonomous Hungarian province, Hungarian as official language in the area and so on.

Meanwhile, under this smoke, the leaders of the main opposition party, social democrats (PSD) are quite at war after the former prime minister Adrian Nastase went to hearings in his file at the National Anti Corruption Department.

His former right hand, Miron Mitrea, laid all the responsibility on Nastase’s shoulders, saying that all funds received by PSD during the electoral campaign were checked by the prime minister himself, Cotidianul reads. Enough to make a good start this week?

Oh, and do NOT forget: avoid Bucharest this week! Nice concerts, nice plays, but traffic is Hell!

Sep 25, 2006