National Press Review, January 24

The recalculation of pensions takes up a lot of space in today’s news. Newspapers write about last evening’s meeting at Controceni between the President, the Prime Minister, the ministers concerned and the Heads of Secret Services, but it is their previous stands newspapers are debating upon.

‘Military pensions, recalculated in Controceni’ – the Evenimentul Zilei headlines; ‘The scandal with the pensions reached Cotroceni’ – the Adevarul also says. While Emil Boc claimed that the recalculation is in process, and Traian Băsescu said the decision of the Supreme Court has to be respected, Minister of Development Elena Udrea states that a new government decision, that would change the procedure, could resume the recalculation process.

The România Liberă emphasizes this last aspect and wonders from the very headline: ‘The Udrea solution for military pensions?’ The government might chose this path – the newspaper argues: issuing a new decision which would eliminate all discriminatory aspects.

Finally, to the point, the Jurnalul Naţional headlines: ‘The recalculation of pensions – mockery and humiliation. Responsible for mocking the rights of military retirees – the newspaper argues – are all the ministers who – and we quote – ‘strang out like beads to apply the controversed decision’, and the President, as well, because he ‘leads a team of incapable ministers’.

Other topics in the news today. The România Liberă: ‘Our asphalt kings shock Europe’. How to make a 40 percent profit when EU companies only get 5 percent. Asphalting roads in Romania is more profitable than anywhere else in Europe. Asked to explain the mystery of huge profits, some constructors say everything is okay and the secret lies in the effective management. However, businessmen in other domains stated for the România Liberă that in Romania, in the road construction business, the auction is for 100 lei, then the work rises up to 150 lei and from here to incredible profits.

On January 24, the Evenimentul Zilei debates on two pages, in the ‘culture’ section, that the leader of the Unification tears two cities apart today. The citizens of Huşi and Bậrlad are struggling for the status of fellow-citizens of Cuza. Cuza’s birthplace remains a subject of dispute between the two cities. Each year, the evidence becomes more diverse, books are printed and panels are ‘branded’.

We conclude with the Gândul which publishes today a comprehensive report about Romanians who are living the ‘Chinese dream’. Engineers, constructors, other Romanian specialists working in China come with confessions about the most efficient organization in the world. The Chinese key to success – a horticulturist says – is that they are less interested in their neighbours’ business and more interested in outrunning them (!).

Translated by Manuela Stancu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University