For the first time in many days, the two major criminal cases of the period – those against House speaker Adrian Nastase and businessman Dinu Patriciu – vanished from the front pages on Wednesday. The newspapers distribute their attention on many other issues instead, from other potential political abuses to financial deals to judicial death threats.

Gandul focuses on opposition Social Democratic (PSD) leader Mircea Geoana’s mother-in-law, an "expert in real estate engineering".

The paper says Margareta Costea managed to buy a villa in a luxurious Bucharest quarter for as low as $350,000, then bought some 300 square meters in the same area – where prices go as high as 800 euro/square meter. Enough to raise suspicions.

Another newspaper, Ziua, focuses on the current political power instead and claims the Democratic Party (PD), part of the current governing alliance, has started works to form a large scale "presidential party" with the main purpose of supporting President Basescu throughout his term.

Ziua, a newspaper sporting close links to businessman Dinu Patriciu, sees Basescu as the brain behind current judicial moves against its friend.

Also in politics, Cotidianul writes that the current Government is the sixth in post-Communist Romania not to be bothered with the "eternal management" of the Romanian Lottery.

Neither PM Tariceanu, nor Finance minister Sebastian Vladescu seem to care about who runs the Lottery – including its top manager Nicolae Cristea, accused of shady deals with deputy PM George Copos.

Meanwhile, tabloid Averea tells the story of a Romanian judge currently under investigation for threatening to kill a colleague of her who managed to advance faster in her professional career.

Prosecutors believe Judge Viorica Dobozi was very close to fulfill her threat – that came in the form of a letter written with pieces of text cut from magazines.

On the money front, Ziarul Financiar writes that Erste Bank are ready to buy the full 100% stake in the Romanian Commercial Bank. The newspaper quotes EB head Andreas Treichl who said in Vienna yesterday the policy of the bank was to buy the stocks it’s not yet holding in the Romanian bank once its new management team is in place in Bucharest.

Bucharest-based economic weekly Banii Nostri follows a story on a sociology project to find out which Romanian city is the most European. So far, the authors of the study believe the western city of Timisoara will come up on top.

And another weekly, Saptamana Financiara, issues a full special report on the richest political people in Romania. The top is led by Conservative Party leader Dan Voiculescu and deputy PM Gheorghe Copos, from the same party, with 251 million euro and 238 million euro respectively.