National Press Review, 23 November 2011

In today’s newspapers we find out who is to blame for the possible increase of the electricity bills.

We also read that for Romania the hard part is only just beginning: the fear of foreign banks withdrawing money from local subsidiaries is starting to become reality.

In the România Liberă we read about “what electricity bill the smart guys have in store for us”.
The managing board of Hidroelectrica appeals to the need of covering the production costs and requests an up to fifty percent price increase for the energy provided to the population; once approved, this request would lead to a fifteen percent increase of the final price for electricity.

Romania’s property restitution fund Proprietatea, majority stakeholder of the company, claims that Hidroelectrica’s losses are consequent on having signed contracts to their detriment with third-party companies, contracts that have been extended over the years.

In the newspaper you can find the classification of the so-called smart guys who purchase cheap energy and re-sell it at a much higher price.

“Impossible financing” – this is the effect of the restrictions imposed by the Austrian banks, according to the Cronica Română.

Financing the budget deficit will become more complicated and more costly.

Moreover, an extremely important precedent is being created, because Austria is not the only country threatened by the banks’ excessive exposure in our part of Europe.

Thus, the the Cronica states, we should expect Rome and Paris to copy Vienna’s decision.
And the România Liberă tackles the same thorny problem: “Austrian banks are turning off the money tap for Romania”.

In order to save its ratings, Austria sacrifices the Central and Eastern European countries, despite Angela Merkel”s declarative engagement, which Wien clearly did not take into consideration.

The “great crisis” appears in the Adevărul as well: “Three good figures, a lot of bad news”.
The country’s inflation, deficit and economic growth rates are looking up, but the number of Romanians who can no longer pay their debts is higher and Europe “is panting”, after being struck in its core.

“Mircea Geoană, ejected by the Democratic Social Party: Farewell, my comrades, farewell, my friends”, is written in the Jurnalul Naţional.

By the decision taken yesterday, PSD will be known in Romania’s history after 1989 as being the first political party to exclude one of its former leaders...and it is all the more pity as we are talking about the second most important man in the state.

Towards the end of his execution Mircea Geoană talked about the need for a Congress within the party, which could dispose of the team whose strings are pulled by Năstase and by the “ominous” Iliescu and which is lead by a tyrannical puppet.

The problem of stray dogs appears on the first page of the Evenimentul Zilei: “150 000 stray dogs at our mayors” disposal”.

After ten years of scandals, the law regarding stray dogs has finally been voted.

From now on, it is up to our municipal administration to take it seriously, and it is up to the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) protecting the out of control animals to come up with concrete solutions in order to avoid putting them to sleep.

“Books are not dead and Gaudeamus is proof of that”, the Evenimentul Zilei writes, pointing out the most important news at the fair organised by Radio România and which opens today.

Translated by:Mihaela Melneciuc
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University