A politically marginalized Liberal and a populist maverick number among the post popular politicians, a new poll shows. That is, despite the first allegedly collaborated with the dreaded political police of ex-dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The same did reputed Romanian jazz man Johnny Raducanu, according to new revelations, who also maintains a high level of appreciation among Romanians.

A grim week is expected for the Romanian judiciary as lawyers go on strike. And the British scare about Romania’s EU accession gets a new twist. All in today’s newspapers.

Ex-Liberal politician Mona Musca’s collaboration with the Securitate, the Communist political police, did not impress Romanians much, a new poll shows. Recently ousted from her party, Musca is above his former boss, Liberal PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu, in terms of appreciation among the people, Evenimentul Zilei notes.

So is populist politician-businessman Gigi Becali, the owner of Bucharest-based Steaua football club.

The same poll shows that Becali is the fourth most appreciated politician in Romania, after President Traian Basescu, presidential aide Theodor Stolojan and MP Mona Musca and above PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu and the head of the main opposition party, Mircea Geoana of the PSD, the newspaper continues.

That is quite suprising for daily newspaper as well. Cotidianul notes that Musca figures well in this poll despite a recent study showed the level of appreciation for her among the public fell considerably once she - previously seen by many as living proof of moral politics - was said to have collaborated with the Securitate.

The so-called “collaboration issue” is brought about in another Cotidianul story as well. The newspaper reveals that Romania’s arguably most reputed jazz man , Johnny Raducanu, was found by a former friend to have informed the Securitate on deeds of the said friend.

Jazz critic Peter Banyai reached the conclusion while remaking his live in the late seventies, when the Securitate files he managed to retrieve showed he had been tailed by a friend.

Elsewhere in the newspapers, Gandul quotes a prominent leader of the governing Democratic Party-PD, Transport minister Radu Berceanu, who said his party offered Liberal PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu to run the government for another two years, if only the Liberals - PNL, also in the governing coalition - agree with early elections in the first part of 2007.

President Basescu and his Democrats have been pushing for early elections for months to clean up the current government.

For its part, Evenimentul Zilei is worried about a planned lawyers’ strike next week, which may leave several indicted people without a proper verdict. The strike is aimed at forcing the authorities to ban a parallel bar, the Romanian Constitutional Bar, which they say operates abusively.

To explain the impact of the move, the newspaper explains that had the strike occurred some time ago, people such as a businessman who shot a man in the head, a prosecutor who received a bribe of 10,000 euro and the driver who killed a reputed film director would have been at large by now, instead of receiving proper sentences.

And Jurnalul National complements the report with an explanation of what the so-called parallel bars are. One of them, it reports, unites lawyers who were not accepted or did not apply for the national bar and operates as a non-governmental organization activating in all sorts of areas, including massage.

Meanwhile, Adevarul interviews the speaker of the Parliament in the neighboring Moldovan Republic, Marian Lupu, who says the Moldovan-Romanian relations are “almost frozen, in a static phase, with no development” and that moves must be taken to put an end to the “circle of two-three subjects” that are endlessly discussed.

And Gandul attacks British tabloid The Sun, which in a recent edition claimed Romanian and Bulgarian citizens have been flocking before the UK embassies in Bucharest and Sofia after the media reported that Ambassador to Bucharest Robin Barnett allegedly said his country would lift visas for the two countries “before” they join the EU on January 1, 2007.

According to Gandul, The Sun’s report is offensive and includes a series of lies and errors, including the quintessential one: Both Barnett and his predecessor, Quinton Quayle, have long been saying that the visas will be lifted by the time Romania and Bulgaria join the EU, which may very well mean 11 p.m., December 31, 2006.