National Press Review, 16 March

The Evenimentul Zilei writes ‘Capital City centre closed for today’.

At least 50 000 people gathered today in front of the Parliament building to take part in the protest organised by the trade unions while the no-confidence motion the opposition put forward against the Labour Code was being debated.

Meanwhile, the leaders collected signatures in order to start a national general strike.

‘Boc paid rewards for motion in advance’, the Adevărul writes, pointing out that the Government allocated 90 million euros to the local administration offices in order to ensure the support of different members of the Parliament.

Large sums of money were offered to the representatives of the party in power outside Bucharest and the counties where the number of the members of the National Union for the Progress of Romania is significant enjoyed special attention since without their support the Government would not stand a day.

The România Liberă publishes the conclusions of a report issued by the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption under the headline ‘Romania lacks power to adopt anticorruption laws’.

The Europeans demand Romania to improve the transparency of the financial situation of the political parties and the legal framework for incriminating corruption.

The report acknowledges the lack of efficiency of the Romanian anticorruption bodies and puts forward 20 recommendations. The endorsement of these recommendations will be analysed in the next year report.

The Gândul publishes the map of the Romanian mafia clans on which the Capital City has a special place: here is where clans fight over territory. Bucharest is followed by the Argeş county, where 7 clans have been identified, according to the newspaper.

‘Global nuclear disaster and chaos in Japanese economy’, the Gândul writes. Millions of panicked people have emptied the food stores and are trying to leave the northern countries after the third explosions at Fukushima and the diffusion of a radioactive cloud.

According to experts, the world industry will be the first collateral victim of the chaos in Japan since activity has been reduced by a quarter.

If the blockage continues, the price of the electronics will go up. The auto industry will be the next victim. Due to the high risk of radioactive contamination, the goods made in Japan will disappear from shelves.

The Adevărul writes on the front page ‘Nuclear quarantine’.

Radioactive substances have been released into the atmosphere following the explosions at the nuclear plant in Fukushima. Foreigners are leaving Tokyo.

After months of asking its citizens to leave Japan, France announced last night that the special correspondents sent to Japan would be returning home.

Most European countries have advised its citizens to avoid any trip to Japan and those who are already there to try to leave the country.

Several airline companies such as Luftansa, Air France or Air China have decided to reduce, reroute and even suspend their flights to and from Japan.

The Jurnalul Naţional takes the inventory of the 150 nuclear reactors in Europe under the headline ‘Europe at war with atomic energy’.

Bulgaria will have to revise the project of the plant in Belene that will be built 80 kilometres away from Bucharest.

The Evenimentul Zilei writes ‘Fukushima effect – reactors put to test’.

Germany will close down its old plants and all European reactors will be tested for resistance.

The plant in Cernavodă has no emergency plan and no decontamination department.

The city mayor and the local hospital director say that Romania could not manage an emergency situation, since there is no adequate equipment or guidelines.


Translated by: Raluca Mizdrea
MA Student, MTTC, Bucharest University