National Press Review, 19 September

The statement made by Liberal senator Teodor Meleşcanu regarding the situation within the party, the reaction of UDMR after the establishment of the Popular Hungarian Party in Transylvania and the reason why the trucks coming from the Netherlands were stopped at the Romanian border are the main topics of the press review.

"Living with Traian Basescu is not unbearable", the Evenimentul Zilei headlines, summarising the interview granted by Liberal Senator Teodor Melescanu regarding the situation within the party.

He said that "the current opposition might work with the president, once it becomes the governing power".

According to the newspaper, the liberal senator spoke about "the games behind the scenes that made his application to the County Council in Prahova to be rejected".

Teodor Melescanu said that "by quitting his position within PSD, the USL protocol was violated because the polls showed he was better situated than the social-democratic representative".

The România Liberă responds to the establishment of the Popular Hungarian Party in Transylvania under the headline "Cyanide causes panic within UDMR".

The article notes that for the first time in the last two decades, the Transylvanian Hungarians votes will be divided between three Hungarian parties and stresses that the Popular Hungarian Party is a competitor who will even run for the general elections.

Therewith, the newspaper writes about the powers of the Popular Hungarian Party, including the endorsement of the European Parliament Vice-President, Laszlo Tokes, and, contrastively, the reaction of UDMR, which has reminded people that for the time being Tokes is its MP.

Another newspaper, another topic.

"50 000 euro per day for smart guys", the Jurnalul Naţional writes detailing that:

"Signing some wasteful contracts through which electricity was sold by Hidroelectrica at a very low price compared to that of the stock market, brings huge losses to the Energy Complex in Turceni, almost 50 000 euro per day. The observation was carried out by the Ministry of Economy, himself, also the main shareholder of the company in Turceni."

Obviously, of all this business the winners are the smart guys and the losers the state and the servile customers, according to the newspaper.

Finally, the Adevărul presents "The Schengen bacteria".

"Since the day the Netherlands decided to refuse the entry of Romania into the Schengen area, the flowers and meat imported from the land of tulips are subject to rigorous controls at the Romanian border."

The newspaper reportes that several trucks with flowers and seedlings were locked and sealed, under suspicion that they contained dangerous bacteria about which no other details were given because of the lack of information coming from the contacted authorities.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University