Romanian newspapers on Monday debate the impact of the withdrawal of the Conservative Party-PC from the Government this weekend. News that a Romanian hacker broke into the NASA servers reverberates days after the first reports in this regard.
The effects of EU accession on local prices are also discussed, while newspapers pay continued attention to reports on shady deals involving Romanian companies.
The Romanian government is a minority government as one junior member, the Conservative Party-PC, decided yesterday to leave the coalition currently in power in Bucharest.
According to Evenimentul Zilei, while its has major implications for the stability of the political leadership in Romania, the PC departure does not come as a surprise. That is because the option of leaving the government was first mentioned in June this year.
The same newspaper lists what the PC loses with its withdrawal: the Economy Ministry, a seat of deputy prime minister and possibly the control of the Romanian Lottery.
According to Adevarul, the PC departure affects Liberal PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu most despite PC leader Dan Voiculescu blamed President Traian Basescu, a Democrat, for the party decision to leave the government. Basescu and Tariceanu have been at loggerheads over a long series of issues since their coming to power.
Gandul is more interested in the results of the PC announcement and reports that Basescu and Tariceanu met yesterday evening to negotiate the orgsnization of early elections next year. And the initiative in this regard came from Tariceanu, who’s been opposing calls for an early poll.
Cotidianul summarizes it all in one headline: “It reeks of governmental carcass and smells of early elections perfume”.
And it reports that the unity of the PC behind its leadership’s decision yesterday is not anonymous, as many PC-connected heads of local institutions across the country are not ready to abandon their seats.
And Jurnalul National, a newspaper owned by the family of PC leader Voiculescu, limits its report to a succinct reflection of events yesterday.
Meanwhile, Evenimentul Zilei sticks to a subject that made waves over the past several days - the story of a Romanian hacker that broke into the NASA servers a year ago. It quotes Victor Faur of the NW Romanian city of Arad who says he only broke into the top-security computers only because he wanted to show off.
And the describes Victor as a “problem-making”child of a hospital manager who only wanted to “improve my IT knowledge”.
Cotidianul also tackles the issue and reports that Victor Faur cannot be extradited to the US to answer for his deeds because a convention with the US on extraditions does not refer to IT-related crimes.
Elsewhere in the newspapers, Jurnalul National reports that when it comes to the EU accession on January 1, 2007, money remains the top cause of concern among Romanians who are wondering what would happen to salaries, prices, travel expenses and terms to work abroad after the country joins the Union.
Adevarul tries to answer that with an interview with Leonard Orban, Romania’s future representative in the European Commission, who claims Romania will not confront a wave of growing prices - on the contrary, some prices will go down.
What worries Orban most, though, is that Romanians might not know how to maximize the benefits of accession and that “there are not many who can discuss EU issues in detail”.
Last but not least, Evenimentul Zilei reports that a former Romanian official charged with espionage in Nigeria has been selling weapons and ammunition to the African country through a Labos-based company under contract with Romanian arms company Romarm.
According to the newspaper, Bogdan Dumitrescu has been selling weapons to Nigeria as an agent for Romarm, Aerostar Bacau (another Romanian company) and the Israeli company Elbit System Ltd..
