The main businessmen involved in contracts with the state are the main sponsors of the governing party, one newspaper reads on Friday. Elsewhere in the news, the local transports strike in Bucharest ended, after a spontaneous strike which froze the capital city. The economic crisis hits the Royal House, as the state urges them to cover the spending for the Elisabeta Palace.

Evenimentul Zilei remarks that those clients contracting from the state are, in the same time, the main sponsors of the governing Democrat Liberal Party. For example, the group owned by businessman Sebastian Ghita contracted, in the last months, 55 million euro from the Finance, Interior and other institutions.

The newspaper reads that Sebastian Ghita is the luckiest sponsor of the Democrat Liberal Party who did not miss the opportunity to sponsor governing parties in the long turn. From the same privileged party are companies like UMR Rovinari or Titan Nuclear Equipments, indirect clients from the Economy Ministry or Lukoil or Transilvania Constructii SA, a company held dear by PM Boc since he was mayor in Cluj Napoca.

Money from Sebastian Ghita, the newspaper reads, reached the Democrat Liberal party in May 2009 through two of his companies: Teamnet International with 55,000 lei and Asesoft with 80,000 lei. This was shortly followed by contracts with the state.

The same system holds true for other companies.

Elsewhere in the news, local transport in Bucharest, the capital city is back on track, after yesterday, about 1000 employees of the local transport organized a spontaneous strike, Cotidianul reads. The whole capital city froze, as people did not have too many alternatives, except for taxis or the subway.

Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu negotiated with protesters and convinced them to start working as of Friday morning. He underlined that they will receive all bonuses and their salaries will not drop.

Last but not least, Cotidianul reads that Romania's authority dealing with state properties is about to urge the Royal House to cover all administrative expenses for the Elisabeta Palace because the state institution does not have enough money, sources within the institution declared for the Romanian news agency Mediafax.

So far, these expenses were covered by the state. The main problem is that the institutions' revenues dropped after the electronic passports production was taken over by the Romanian National Printing House and thus is not able to cater for the palace.

Spending for the Palace for 2010 are estimated at about 750,000 lei - more than in 2009 as utility prices increased. In 2003, the government decided that the state should cover expenses for the Palace for utilities, goods and personnel, including the terrain. In 2006, the Palace was offered as residence for King Mihai I as former chief of state.

The Palace is located on Kiseleff street, and has a total built surface of 1.645 meters and 12.977 meters terrain.