National Press Review, 1 November

“The state wins from the selling of winter tyres 400 million euros”, the România Liberă writes. The newspaper specifies that safety in traffic is mentioned, but statistics show that during winter there are actually fewer accidents. Something else stays at the basis of the calculations: the tyres are a good source of VAT incomes.

“The credibility of the political leaders is the key to getting through 2012 without problems” the Ziarul Financiar writes. We read about how president Traian Băsescu and Prime Minister Emil Boc manage this chapter after all the measures adopted during the problematic years of the Romanian economy, compared to the results of other European leaders.

The conclusion is that in our country speeches are not put into actions. An example is the raise of the VAT, a big strike given to the businessmen: the tax has been increased four month after the government excluded this possibility.

“Romania is preparing to nationalize the banks”, we find out from the Jurnalul Naţional. The IMF recommended that Romania should set up a “bridge-bank” in order to avoid bankruptcies in the banking system. NBR said several times that the banks are being watched and that they have good indicators, but, just in case, NBR intends to create a new bank, one that can take over the administration of the banks that will have problems.

Another topic that started a controversial debate on the issue of bullies and violence: the incident that took place at the football match Petrolul-Steaua, last Sunday night, makes the first page of the Evenimentul Zilei along with other four in the newspaper.

The beating between the footballer from Serbia, Novak Martinovici and the bully who entered the field and beastliness hit George Galamaz splits the country into two sides. How far can self- defence go?

The same story, under the title “Cruelty in Ploieşti” has seven pages in the Adevărul, which also makes the portrait of the attacker: a drugged and a recidivist. In the newspaper we read about a chain of weakness: this kind of incidents is born from the incompetence of those employed to assure order and from the hesitations of referees. The problem is that what happened on Sunday is nothing out of the ordinary for the first League.

The Jurnalul Național writes that “guilty of the chaos are Petrolul and the security firm”. The National Commission against Violence in Sports superficially fined the club and the security firm, just to justify their existence. The drugged supporter who hit the football player from Steaua, Gomez, in the temple beneficiated from the “impassibility closer to stolidity” of the security firm, the Jurnalul writes.

Translated by: Violeta Mavrodin

MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University