Too hot for politics. As the weekend approaches and the summer brings new records in temperature and rivers' discharges, the political stage seems to enter a well-deserved holiday.
The main Opposition party, PSD, still produces low-interest news, while the elections for the European Parliament seem far enough to cause any fuss. As in "Do the right thing" or "Sal's pizzeria", as it is known in Romania, excessive heat only means more street violence.
"President Traian Basescu offered the Prime Minister seat to Mircea Geoana", claims the Liberal speaker in the House of Deputies, annoyed by the secrecy around the negotiations between the president and the main Opposition party, Social Democrats (PSD), Jurnalul National reads.
A less than significant piece of news, since the PSD already announced it will remain an Opposition party until the future elections.
"Romania - a new player in the European Union" is the headline in Evenimentul Zilei. For the first time after the accession, Romania is called to vote on the future of the community, in a moment of crisis in the development of an European Constitution.
It seems that, at least for the days spent in Brussels, president Basescu and PM Tariceanu have made peace, being the first time in over an year when the two meet without making contradictory statements.
Back home, a recent move of the Constitutional Court threatened to block for good the criminal files investigating the 1989 Revolution in Romania as well as the violent events on June 13-15, 1990, when the miners responded to president Iliescu's call and caused mayhem and destruction in Bucharest.
Prosecutor General Laura Kovesi declared on Thursday that the investigations conducted so far will remain valid, although some of the files may move from military to civil courts, Evenimentul Zilei reads.
In other news:
- Jurnalul National: The European currency reached a new minimum - 3.1999 Romanian Lei (RON), a level last seen in June 2002. The US dollar also decreased to its level in September 2000, 2.3911 RON / dollar.
- Evenimentul Zilei: 26 people died because of the excessive heat. Draught threatens over half of the Romanian counties and desertification may appear in counties already declared as "under extreme draught".
- Cotidianul: Water rationalized in half of Romania. The Government forbids people in Southern Romania to waste water on wetting or irrigating their gardens. The next decision may be to forbid car washing and street squirting.
- Romania Libera: Romania ranks first in school violence, according to a study on 37 countries. Some 70% of all students "are afraid to go to school" because of the hooligans.
- Gandul: Romanians are the most violent illegal immigrants in Italy, according to a report put up by the Italian Interior Ministry. On the other hand, the Romanian legal immigrants have a crime rate equal or lower than the rate among Italian local communities.
- Cotidianul: Romania builds three times less homes than the average in the European Union, 1.8 per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to 15 in Spain and Ireland, 4.1 in Hungary or 2.9 in the Czech Republic.
