Unlike the expectable reactions, labor unions in Romania demand that the car registration tax, declared illegal by the European Union, stays in force. Meanwhile, after more than a week of silence, Romania president Traian Basescu gives Moldova President Vladimir Voronin something to worry about: "all 4.5 million Moldova citizens should receive Romanian citizenship". Over all other issues, a car crash involving Transport Minister Ludovic Orban makes it to all front pages.
An analysis put up by Evenimentul Zilei indicates that the health care system is only going to go from bad to worse. "The system in a permanent degradation and specialists say that a 'cure' is impossible, given the current state of the financing. A study conducted by the "Solidarity" Federation shows that 60% of all health care facilities' managers say that they face a serious lack of qualified personnel.
Other unions have other priorities. The National Labor Union Block demands that the car registration tax, although declared as illegal and discriminatory by the European Union, stays in force. The reason: "Over 2,000,000 junkyard cars are about to enter Romania. In 2006, 150,000 second-hand cars, some of them older than 10 years, were purchased by Romanians. This means 30,000 cars more than the amount purchased in the first 11 months of 2006", Gandul reads.
"The Transport Minister tries to get away by blaming everyone else", Romania Libera reads, discussing the car crash involving minister Ludovic Orban. Orban believes that he is the victim of a political attack coordinated by president Traian Basescu. Meanwhile, the car crash victim, 14-year old Simona Todea, claims she has a broken hand due to an accident earlier in the day.
"The Government is careful in avoiding a tarnished image", Gandul reads, claiming that Prime Minister Tariceanu demanded minister Orban to resign, so that the accident would not affect his cabinet's image.
"3,000 euro, the first pay down for buying silence" is the title in Evenimentul Zilei, a newspaper that believes that "the fate of the minister lays in the hands of a 15-year old girl". The newspaper informs that sources close to the victim's family pretend that minister Ludovic Orban paid 3,000 euro to make the accident "forgotten".
Ecology activists have targets far from this trivial subject: an activist disguised as Santa Claus offered Environment Minister Attila Korodi a bag of edible gifts tagged "may containing genetically modified organisms". Greenpeace reproaches the minister with the fact that GMO legislation isn't ready yet, although it may be instated before the end of the year, Jurnalul National reads.
The cherry on top of today's news is that president Traian Basescu made some public statements that may seriously worry Moldova president Vladimir Voronin. After weeks of unreasonable and unjustified attacks against Romania, Basescu found proper to say, in a TV show, that "Moldova citizens who are not Romanian ethnics should also receive Romanian citizenship" and discussed the problem as regarding "the Romanian people across the border". The main subject in his speech was that "the Communism failed to succeed in all countries and it will fail in Moldova, too", Cotidianul reads.
