National Press Review, January 23

The protests across the country, the discussions inside the opposition about the early elections and an interview with the vice-president of the Liberal Democratic Party (PDL), Mihai Stănişoară – are some of today’s newspaper subjects.

Under the headline ‘The voices of reason in the winter of riots’, the Adevărul brings in attention the opinions of Romanians who accomplished great things in various fields, about the events across the country.

Details about their perception referring to the street protests from the past ten days, as well as the immediate and on long term crisis solutions, can be found in the newspaper’s pages.
The same publication affirms that ‘Năstase teaches Antonescu the Constitution’ and comments that the extraordinary parliamentary meeting held today finds the leaders of the opposition disagreeing.

The author of the article describes the procedure of early elections, and writes that the president of The National Council of The Social Democratic Party (PSD), Adrian Năstase, informed the Liberal Social Union (USL) members that the resignation of the opposition’s parliamentarians – one of the solutions proposed by the liberal leader Crin Antonescu – would not trigger early elections.

The România Liberă analyses ‘USL’s changes to get Romania sanctioned by the European Union.’

It is about the statement of the PSD eurodeputy Rovna Plumb, who claimed last week that there will be held a public debate in the European Parliament ‘about the democratic sideslipping in Romania’ and who warned that if the deficiencies are not remedied, ‘article 7 of the Treaty with the community forum can be invoked.’

The newspaper reveals that the famous article 7, which became a reason of dispute between the opposition and the power, and which implies sanctions for the European Union’s countries that do not respect the democratic rules, has not been applied to the day.

Moreover, the demarche is a difficult one and implies incontestable proves that would show that in the respective country have taken place some serious deviations, the România Liberă highlights.

The Evenimentul Zilei presents an interview with the PDL vice-president, Mihai Stănişoară, who talks about the past days events and about the possible solutions for the current crisis.

At the same time, he enumerates some of the mistakes, as well as the good things done by PDL during this time.

Finally, the Jurnalul Naţional writes in detail, in today’s edition, about the protests from Bucharest and across the country from different points of view, including the image that the foreign media conveys based on the events in Romania.

Translated by: Camelia-Aura Barbu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University