The struggle for the control of the archives of Romanian ex-dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s secret police, the Securitate, splits the governing coalition as newspapers today accuse one of its member parties of political treason in line with the 15-year history of post-Communist transition. The effects of the Romanian Foreign minister to the US are largely debated.

And the media heats up supporters before the confrontation between Steaua and Rapid in the UEFA Cup quarterfinals tomorrow.

In a suprinsing but not strange twist of events, the Democratic Party (PD), a member of the governing coalition, pushed its own nominee for the top position in an institution studying the archives of the former Communist secret police, the Securitate.

And PD’s nominee Corneliu Turianu managed to defeat the man supported by the Liberals (PNL) and the governing coalition, reputed anti-Communist Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu.

Which led of accusations that PD has joined the opposition of Social-Democrats and the far-right Greater Romania Party in resisting Romania’s efforts to reveal the archived files of the Securitate, as it has been done in most CEE countries after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

"The Securitate breaks the Alliance down", says a front page headline in Evenimentul Zilei, speaking of the tensions produced by the vote yesterday within the governing D.A. Alliance of PNL and PD. The newspaper says PD named Turianu under President Basescu’s pressure.

Basescu was the leader of PD and maintains a high degree of influence within the group despite the president being non-partisan by law.

Gandul also notes the deepening crack within the D.A. Alliance as the Liberals accused their Democratic partners of treason – in line with a series of such accusations throughout the past year and a half since they came to power.

"They betrayed him good", Cotidianul writes about the situation Ticu Dumitrescu has been put in, while Romania libera accuses PD of joining the opposition in defending the traditional secrecy over the Securitate archives.

Confrontation also splits Romanian football fans as two of their teams will face each other tomorrow in the first round of the UEFA Cup quarter-finals. Evenimentul Zilei publishes a exhaustive feature presenting the preparations of Steaua and Rapid supporters on the eve of Thursday’s match.

Secrecy rules here as well, as Steaua fans are preparing a "special choreography" about which they don’t slip a word, the newspaper reports.

Less about classified information and more about the loss of memory: an investigation by Cotidianul into how the sale of a state-owned plot of land valued at 11.2 million euro was approved by a "Mister M" from the Transport Ministry, under the previous government, for another plot worth only 10,000 euro has hit the wall of silence on behalf of ex-Transport minister Miron Mitrea.

According to the newspaper, Mitrea does not remember whether he is the "Mister M" signed on a document approving the sale, but would not exclude the possibility.

Also in Cotidianul, a report focuses on recent statements made in Washington by Romanian Foreign minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu and US deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who confirmed previous reports that the US forces may launch attacks against other countries using military bases at their disposal in Romania.

And Gandul reports the Romanian Army plans to buy "a second-hand American nuclear submarine", as announced by Defense minister Teodor Atanasiu in Bucharest. "Nobody knows what Romania could do with such a thing", the newspaper points out.