National Press Review, 2 August

"United States will postpone financial apocalypse", the Adevărul writes, if the U.S. debt limit increases, but… it depends on the public spending cuts.

"Republicans and Democrats haven’t agreed yet on what cuts to make", the newspaper writes, concluding: "another crisis is being for the moment postponed, but not solved". Analysed from different perspectives, the U.S. situation influences the world economy:

"the agreement has stabilized the markets and led to a decrease of the yen, Swiss franc and gold".

Journalists go on saying that "Europe will depend on the U.S. decisions – once the plan is agreed on, investors will supervise the implementation process of the medium and long-term tax measures".

Another failure in agreeing on the compromise plan for increasing the debt limit would lead to "market chaos".

"Another compromise for avoiding chaos", the România Liberă writes.

The newspaper analyses the reactions brought by the agreement between the Republicans and the Democrats: "welcomed warmly by the world leaders and cautiously by financial markets and criticized by the American media".

According to the România Liberă, important newspapers see it as "a surrender to the Conservatory extremists".

Now let us take a look at our own issues.

The România Liberă writes that "after the departure of the representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the World Bank, the coalition leaders talked about raising civil servants’ wages".

The newspaper seems to overanalyse something that is as obvious as the elephant in the room and concludes: "the statements of both the governing coalition and the opposition representatives were completely contradictory."

It is not yet clear when wages will go back to where they were before the crisis – the recovery will probably be gradual and start on 1 January 2012. "Until then money will be used for investment and arrears", the România Liberă adds.

The Evenimentul Zilei also writes about the tension within the coalition.

The daily offers an interview with the former Minister of Finance, Daniel Dăianu, saying that if there were to be an increase, it would be a very modest one.

"We cannot talk about a real increase because tax by inflation is extremely high in Romania", Daniel Dăianu stated, considering that in the last two years inflation was around 8 percent.

The newspaper also quotes the statement made by the representative of the national minorities, Varujan Pambuccian, who brought about an increase of 5 percent.

Finally, the Jurnalul Naţional answers the question "why are we building the People’s Salvation Cathedral?", quoting a press release issued by the Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate.

The Patriarchate considers that constructing such a cathedral is "a public necessity and a symbol of the national dignity", an opinion that not all the representatives of the national press share.

An editorial written by Gabriel Bejan for the România Liberă concludes: the contribution of the state remains a controversial topic.

However, we could not but notice that more and more people are against this project. And the defence of the Patriarchate is less and less convincing.

Translated by: Raluca Mizdrea
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University