National Press Review, 29 March

Newspapers published today in Bucharest grant whole pages to the cable grams sent to Washington by the American Embassy in Romania and published on the WikiLeaks website.
The diplomatic notes sent from the US Embassy in Bucharest and taken by WikiLeaks reviews our country as located in the midst of fierce battles for power – notes the România Liberă under the title ‘Lost Letters’.

Many of the information in the telegrams aren’t new; some are just rumours, but others review public personalities in a completely different and unique light.

Newspapers also detail various fragments of the telegrams package.

The Gândul states: ‘How Romanian politicians gossiped at the UD Embassy’.

Evenimentul Zilei : ‘Who wore the Russian flag in the WikiLeaks cable grams’.

One of the most important fields of interest for American diplomats – the Adevărul reads - was the one regarding the justice reform in Romania. The US Embassy observed the fight against… anticorruption in Romania around 2007.

Finally, the Jurnalul Naţional publishes details about another episode, of the same period: the head of public television news complained to the American officials that the director of the institution was preventing her from broadcasting images from what was at that moment called ‘The Sausage Business’.

Political issues in today’s newspapers. Adrian Severin announced his resignation from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) yesterday, just before the Bucharest Organisation voted his exclusion from the party – the Adevărul reads.

The România Liberă argues: the former deputy Prime Minister resigned from PSD, but continues to act like a victim and says he wouldn’t leave from the European Parliament.
The Evenimentul Zilei reads that Marian Vanghelie creid, even though Adrian Severin told him that his separation from the party was formal and temporary.

On the other hand, at the Liberal Democratic Party (PDL), the struggle for leadership is almost over – the Gândul notes – facing Emil Boc and Vasile Blaga. The two had a closed meeting with the party’s congressmen yesterday.

Where the Gândul sees a scandal insight PDL, because Blaga had supposedly asked Boc to ‘seize all arrangements’, the Adevărul argues that, in fact, the two have asked their own congressmen for a non-aggression agreement in the internal campaign; to be more specific, they’ve asked them to concentrate rather on the laws they cannot handle due to the lack of mobilization and not the upcoming party elections.

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