National Press Review, 24 May

The newspapers of the day comment upon the action yesterday in the Constanta Harbour, made by anti-corruption prosecutors, on which they write that this is a new episode of the series ‘corruption at the customs’, with its echoes – this time – in the political world also.

‘Penal storm in the paradise of corruption’, the România Liberă headlines. After avoiding the illicit business in the Constanta Harbour for years in a row, authorities made their first serious move. After tens of searches and hearings, DLP Senator Banias was indicted for influence peddling, and the general secretary for the Ministry of Interior Laurenţiu Mironescu fired and taken from his home with the special troupes.

According to judicial sources, the Evenimentul Zilei notes, the two have intervened with the Customs Heads in Constanta, Agigea, Slobozia and Bucharest in order to allow containers of smuggled goods to bypass control authorities without any issues.

‘Dubious business, dangerous liaisons’, the Adevărul reads as well. General Secretary at the Minister of Interior, Mironescu and Senator Banias are suspected of coordinating a network that controlled the Constanta Harbour, composed of Chinese and Turkish citizens.

Other topics in today’s news. We stick with the Adevărul, that compared the economic government program of the Social Liberal Union with the Democrat Liberal Party’s program in 2009. Both burst with populism and consist of empty promises on liberal skeletons – the newspaper notes, hence the big title that the Adevărul opens today’s issu with: ‘The PDL and the USL, sellers of illusions’.

The Jurnalul Naţional reports today that the Romsilva National Forrest Organization offers over one million euros to build a luxury office, ultramodern, in an arboretum in Bacău. All for not more than 25 employees the Organization has – notes the newspaper.

The România Liberă writes about the financial stakes of the scandal involving the feral horses from Letea, the Danube Delta. Authorities and non-governmental institutions are at war. Authorities in Tulcea are accusing the animal protection associations of preventing the owners to legally sell their horses in order to avoid losing millions of euros in funding from the European Union. The non-governmental organizations are accusing the authorities of bad treatment towards the animals.

We conclude with the Evenimentul Zilei which, in the health care page, writes about the best hospitals in the country. The only units in the Capital falling into the highest performance category are the University Hospital and the Floreasca Hospital. In the country, according to the minister’s classifications, there are only three such hospitals: in Timişoara, Târgu Mureş and Iaşi. However, by next year, even these units must establish new departments or purchase equipment, without which they won’t be able to maintain ‘the very high level’ where they are falling at the present time.



Translated by: Manuela Stancu
Ma Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University