Romanian newspapers on Thursday report renewed tensions as the political life is back on track now that the Easter holidays are over. Major judicial moves are announced in cases involving the makers and breakers in the Romanian energy sector. Papers also deal with the stance of Romanian and Bulgarian far-rightists in the European Parliament.

And the media welcome Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov at a Romanian festival.

Evenimentul Zilei reports that prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu has warned his Liberal colleagues to stay away from shady deals with public money, now that the Democratic Party is no longer a member of the Government and they have the opportunity of running the country by themselves.

The warning comes a week after a major government reshuffle that left Tariceanu’s Liberals dominating a minority government in partnership with the smaller Hungarian Democrats (UDMR).

Tariceanu’s statement overlaps with the first media reports of possible abuses by Liberal politicians. According to Cotidianul, the Liberals are undermining their own reform of the Health system by planning to reinstate incompatible people as hospital managers.

The move is supported by Liberal and opposition-supported changes to a Health reform law that would have prevented such incompatibilities, according to the paper.

The Health reform is also dealt with in Gandul, which reports that foreign credits aimed at supporting the process have been redirected to profit-making politicians.

According to the paper, Health Ministry credits have been redirected to the procurement of limos, while Environment Ministry credits - to natural disaster prevention contracts concluded without public tender with a company belonging to a controversial businessman.

Tariceanu’s warning yesterday comes as Romanian President Traian Basescu delivered an interview for Cotidianul, saying that he would not come to terms with a “prime minister that depends on the influence of oligarchs”.

Basescu says he would push on with his idea of early elections and warned the country’s new, young and disputed Justice minister Tudor Chiuariu that he would face his enmity if he “stick his nose” in judicial cases.

The same newspaper mocks at the current situation on the political stage, where three governments and two oppositions operate: the proper, Liberal government, the Social Democratic opposition and its own shadow government, and the newly-established Democratic Party opposition with its own shadow government.

Meanwhile, Jurnalul National reports that DIICOT, a judicial body dealing with organized crime, has opened a criminal inquiry against several people involved in the so-called Hidroelectrica case, after the name of a major energy company in Romania.

Former Economy minister Codrut Seres counts among those investigated for undermining the national economy.

According to Evenimentul Zilei, there are nine people investigated in the case. Some of them - including Seres - are also charged in separate cases, including the key privatizations in the Romanian energy sector. The newspaper quotes Seres who dismissed the charges as “absurd….

They’re still have to accuse me of genocide and they’ll have finished with all the charges”.

And Cotidianul reports that the inquiry announced yesterday was opened as early as April 3 and that it is related to a deal that had Swiss company VA TECH, run by Romanian businessman Bogdan Buzaianu, operate malfunctioning technology upgrades at the Portile de Fier dam on river Danube.

Elsewhere in the papers:

Gandul quotes French newspaper Le Monde according to which the one Bulgarian member of the far-right group in the European Parliament is rather “brutal”, while the five Romanian members of the same group are courteous and careful on insisting they disagreed with xenophobic, anti-Semitic and racist theories.

Cotidianul writes that Romanian exports “entered a state of collapse” because of the new fiscal rules applied since early this year, according to the National Association of Exporters and Importers in Romania.

Romania libera reports that the European Commission revealed a new Black Sea strategy paper for a better cooperation between countries in the region.

The plan does not promise new funds for the area, but a framework of support for a future Black Sea common market for Russia, Ukraine, the Moldovan Republic, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

• The same Romania libera heralds the presence of famous Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov at the B-EST International Film Festival due to open in Bucharest on Saturday. He is also expected to run a film workshop at the National Theater in the Romanian capital.