National Press Review, 8 September

As the football match between Romania and France ended late and the topic was not included in yesterday's edition of the morning newspapers, today the press covers almost entirely the echoes of the event on the front page.

Of course, most of the space is occupied by the stories about the unusable turf and the changed national anthem.

The Adevărul believes that "the first football match on the National Arena should be a celebration. But the inauguration was marred by three major errors: the national anthem was truncated by Marcel Pavel, the turf was horrible and Piţurcă was pleased with draw suicidal remise".

"'National Arena' – a potato field on our money", the Evenimentul Zilei headlines. "What was supposed to be a national pride turned into an international disgrace.

The company that seeded the turfgrass belongs to Adrian Oprişan (the brother of the PSD local baron, Marian Oprişan) the same who, in 2003, made the match between Romania and Denmark take place in the sand.

General Mayor of Bucharest and the FRF president knew about the turf problems on the 'National Arena' but did not move a finger", the paper said.

The România Liberă shows "how easily the disaster of the National Arena could have been avoided".

The newspaper has sought comparable situations and has found that, for example, at the inauguration of a stadium in the UK, the authorities waited four months after installing the turf before organising the first official match. The field was flawless.

As for the anthem, the journalists from the România Liberă are very synthetic, "Marcel Pavel took 'Traian' out of the anthem and was fined".

Overall, the Romanians who witnessed the match liked the stadium, the Jurnalul Naţional claims, quoting a supporter of the National Football team:

"We felt sorry that we didn’t defeat France, but we enjoyed a third millennium stadium."

Other topics in today's newspapers.

"The apartment prices receive a fillip from the National Bank", the Ziarul Financiar headlines, also examining a Central Bank initiative to encourage lending in domestic currency.

Thus, to obtain a mortgage in euro, you need an advance of at least 30 percent, while in lei of only 15 percent. Instead, the interest rates in lei will be double.

The extent could lead to further declines in the apartment prices. As for loans for personal needs, they will not be granted for more than 5 years.

Bankers have two weeks to negotiate with the new Central Bank rules.

The Ziarul Financiar proposes an analysis of conditions under which a Romanian can seek private health system.

Many private clinics in Romania announced that they have signed contracts with the health insurance funds and thus they can provide free or discounted medical services also to those who have state insurance, based on a referral from their family doctor.

These announcements are slightly true, however.

As a matter of fact, only the simple tests are free. For more complex inquiries or for surgery the co-payment is charged and the amounts are not to be omitted.

The conclusion is that "the only way to not pay admission to a private hospital still remains the private health insurance, and not the state one, which almost all Romanians have".

"Luxury homes for messengers and secretaries", the newspaper Azi headlines, revealing that "tens of petty officials, including drivers and secretaries serving the dignitaries" offices, live in homes of tens and even hundreds of square meters of the Administration of the State Protocol Patrimony, for which they pay very low rents.

Meanwhile, Europe is preparing new austerity measures, the Adevărul writes.

The Greek government has announced the immediate privatisation of some state companies. In Italy the VAT increased by 1 percent.

Hungary prepares new taxes and even the Austrians have a plan to reduce budget expenses.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA student, MTTLC, Bucharest University