Mostly bad news about poverty and lack of perspective - this is the general tone in the newspapers on Tuesday. Romania loses pace in economic growth, the Romanian immigrants who worked abroad (and through this financed the budget deficit) are about to be laid off, things are starting to look bad in Romania for more an more people. Over one quarter of the populace says the life got harder.

Romania fell to the 7th place in industrial production growth in Europe, with a 4.4% growth rate, after being 5th in January (5.6%). The most significant growth was recorded in Poland (12.3%), Slovakia (11.5%), Lithuania (11.1%) and Bulgaria (4.8%), Cotidianul reads.

At the same time, Romanians working abroad are severely affected by the real estate crisis. Unemployment in construction may leave without jobs between 330,000 and 450,000 workers during the following two years, Romania Libera warns. In Spain, the new Socialist government plans to offer significant compensations to immigrant workers so that they would return home. The government also takes into account the possibility to offer small credits, enough for workers to open small businesses in their native countries.

Meanwhile, back home, in Romania, 28% of the people say their living conditions worsened in 2007, compared to 2006, according to a research conducted by Daedalus Consulting in January, quote by Realitatea TV and Evenimentul Zilei. In the previous study, 37% of the respondents said their lives improved in 2006, compared to 2005, while only 20% said living got more difficult.

Despite this, at least the car producing industry seems to go well. According to Automotive News, Romania will produce over 840,000 car engines and over 500,000 cars per year in six years from now.

It is not yet clear how much Renault lost during the general strike at its Romanian factory, Automobile Dacia, but one thing is clear: the season for strikes has come. After car producer, policemen and transporters, the steel workers are now on strike, at the ArcelorMittal steel plant in Galati. Workers demand double wages, with a minimum salary jumping from 500 to 1,000 RON (1 euro = 3.75 RON), Gandul notes.

Enough to bear, so politics is one again seen as "second page news". Conservatives (PC) and Social Democrats (PSD) prepare for a new alliance, although PC betrayed PSD after the last elections and helped Liberals and Democrats put up a Government without PSD, Cotidianul reads.

Most newspapers already give for certain the next Foreign Minister, Lazar Comanescu, although both the Liberal Party board and president Traian Basescu have not agreed yet with the nomination made by Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu.