Romania: Press review - March 8.
Bucharest, March 8 /Agerpres/ - Romania's national dailies of Monday give main coverage to the convention at the weekend of the Congress of the opposition National Liberal Party (PNL); the latest economic prospects for Romania; a new wave of redundancy and the latest development in the local labour market; the national final contest for Eurovision 2010 song contest.
Adevarul reports that chief of the National Liberal Party (PNL) Crin Antonescu has been re-elected by 986 Liberals and his challenger Ludovic Orban won 357 votes. Orban's supporters are quoted as reproaching Antonescu of what they call a lack of communication within the party and as calling on him to change his behaviour to avoid any split in the party.
Evenimentul Zilei remarks that the convention of the PNL Congress witnessed an increase in the influence of some of the party's deputy chairmen and the coming to power of some new ones. Deputy Chairman Relu Fenechiu is one of the PNL leaders to have consolidated his influence.
Romania libera quotes officials of the ruling Democratic-Liberal Party (PD-L) as arguing that the real winner of the PNL Congress convention is chief of the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) Victor Ponta who, they further argue, has secured the support of the Liberals through the victory of Antonescu. The party also notes that PNL is about to become PSD's rival in its stated attempt to become a major party able to secure 30 percent of the general vote.
Curentul remarks that Antonescu was re-elected, saying that the PNL Congress comfortably reconfirmed Antonescu as the party's chief and the statutes Antonescu wanted for the party. With the newly increased powers, the paper says, Antonescu has pledged to turn PNL into the leading party to resist President Basescu and what he calls the 'state party PD-L' that will also be able to win more than 30 percent of the vote in the 2012 general election and the 2014 presidential election, counting on a project of significance to PNL and Romania. The paper also notes that Antonescu and his team seem to have a military rather than a political ideology, with their only constant offering being an obsessive war against Basescu and PD-L.
Gandul notes that the effects of the anti-crisis measures taken by the Boc Cabinet in 2009 are imaginary rather than real because, although in theory Romania has raised a 13-billion-euro loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF ) for investment, the investment chapter has been neglected by the Government. The paper explains that this is the conclusion of senior economist with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Peter Sanfey.
Ziarul financiar remarks that optimism is breaking apart much as it did in 2009 as the Government is again talking about zero growth and President Traian Basescu is talking about a new loan.
Romania is advancing in 2010 much on the same optimistic note of the Government as one year ago, when crisis was said not to exist and the record 20-billion-euro loan from the IMF and the European Commission was presented as a safety belt, but nobody is saying why the lost bets of 2009 would have better odds to succeed now, the paper says. Much as in 2009, the soothing statements of the Government and the National Bank of Romania (BNR) are undercut by shocking signals: President Traian Basescu is invoking the scarecrow of a new external loan toward the end of the year, unless the Government cuts its spending, while Finance Ministry experts are preparing to present to the European Commission a scenario of zero growth, down from the official projection of an economic growth of 1.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The fourth quarter of 2009 should have witnessed an economic bounce back, but it was not meant to be in the end, and so the BNR officials have moved the expectations to the second quarter of 2010 and the Government is betting on Romania coming out of the crisis in the second quarter of 2010. These are the same 'encouraging' expectations and bets on reality as in 2009, with the same paucity of arguments, the paper concludes.
Curierul national quotes Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu as saying the banks have money to co-finance projects sponsored by EU funds. The banking sector has a high liquidity rate and the banks should consider granting loans to attract EU grants, because the Romanian Finance Ministry will no longer be as active on the domestic market for Government securities as it was in 2009, Vladescu told a seminar on European funds on Friday.
Cotidianul remarks that petrol prices have slowly but surely increased. Prices for fuels have surged over the past 15 months, with the oil companies operating in Romania having hiked prices a lot, although this has been a time of crisis for Romania. Thus, prices, at least for petrol, increased nearly 50 percent between December 2008 and March 3, 2010.
On March 8, 10,301 of the 64,000 employees of the CFR national railway carrier will be made redundant, under a Government decision concerning the restructuring of the local railway companies.
Cotidianul remarks that CFR was long considered the second army of the country, with people stampeding to win a job with this once respectable institution.
Romania libera notes that 10,000 Romanian will be made redundant today and Ziarul financiar carries a map of the Romanian job market remarking that there are tens of thousands of redundancies being performed and only some thousands of jobs being created.
The papers report that Paula Seling and Ovi on Saturday won the national final contest that selected the representatives of Romania in the Eurovision 2010 song contest in Oslo, Norway, late this May. Their prizewinner song is called 'Playing With Fire.' AGERPRES
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