National Press Review, November 10

Today, we find in Gândul the final version of the increased costs of the 2011 car tax.

Beside the fact that all cars, including the ones using a 5 Euro engine will be taxed when being matriculated, the tax for non-Euro cars and up to 4 Euro cars will boost with 50%.

Therefore, the minimum charge for 5 Euro cars will be about 91 Euro meanwhile the tax for the first registration of a more than twenty years-old non-Euro car could reach up to 32 thousand Euros.

The reason is that these types of emissions are very pollutant.

The Secretary of Environment, Laszlo Borbely, reasoned this decision by asserting that ‘we need more money from environment fund for green investment.’

He noted that the government is working out at granting some advantages for the companies that produce electric non-pollutant vehicles.

‘Health Card- your second identity card,’ another title from Gândul emphasizes an idea for which the Health Secretary, Cseke Attila, mentioned that ‘Romanian people have to carry this card in their wallets because only when showing it one can benefit from medical services.’

He added that each card will have a chip on which will be stocked various information related to the possessor such as his name, his personal code, diagnoses, blood group, the proof of having paid the health insurance tax and the agreement about donating organs.

National Health Cards will be issued and delivered next year.

Evenimentul Zilei acquaints us about the nonsense that leads to loopholes in health budget: ‘20% of the indemnified prescriptions are a fraud’ as claimed by those working in this system.

The President of the National Health Insurance Company does not reject the charges but he says that he can’t estimate exactly the actual size of the fraud.

România Liberă informs us that, beginning with this year, mandatory housing insurance did not reach its target at all: about 85% of the aggregated insurance policies against disasters have been sold in towns though they were created as a response to the floods that had affected particularly the countryside.

‘Budget in 2011 is nothing but illusions,’ as Adevărul quotes.

‘Salaries increment, co-occurring with cutting down on unemployment and with rising up the number of workers is only one of the odds of the forecast the budget will be based on, in 2011.

For now, the only thing one can record is the reality of 2010: purchasing power went down fast and continuously, as well as salaries of the workers in most of the fields, and the increments forecasted before for the branches considered a stimulus for the economy get late in appearing,’ the daily notes.

Moving on, let’s glance at the endless fights on the political stage, too.

‘Roberta, the price for making peace with Băsescu,’ as written by Adevărul; ‘Anastase’s head, the price for the truce of Băsescu,’ as quoted by Evenimentul Zilei; ‘The president charged the congressmen with the responsibility of a possible failure,’ Jurnalul Naţional claims.

The treaty proposed by the president, yesterday, in the Parliament, revealing that in the next forty days opposition and power should give up any quarrel and focus on acquiring public budget and on other requirements from IMF, has been rejected by the opposition.

It requires sacking out Roberta Anastase from ruling the Lower House, who is accused for having cheated on the poll regarding the law of pensions.

România Liberă changes the perspective and says as I quote: ‘What does the opposition want in exchange for the peace of forty days: PSD (the Democratic Social Party) and PNL( the Liberal National Party) makes different conditions for starting the negotiations with PDL( the Liberal Democratic Party)

‘Social-democrats are pleased with replacing Roberta Anastase while liberals require Emil Boc’s head.’

Interviewed by Jurnalul Naţional, the journalist who wrote in the British daily, ‘The Guardian,’ about that she didn’t understand why we have promoted the Carpathian Mountains as touristic when we have Dracula as ‘an erotic international brand’, declares that those who chose to lure tourists with a leaf have been ‘ludicrous’.

As a foreign tourist, the Englishwomen had bitter fun with the adventures she had to experience while going to visit one of the houses that Vlad Ţepeş lived in and while driving to the Poenari castle on non-existent highways which she compared with the vampires having into her mind the idea that everybody heard about but nobody saw them.

‘Romania’ is a fascinating country and the way that history merges with religion is only one of its charming features. The British journalist assesses: ‘The only think I can say is that you have some incredible churches!’



Translated by: Cristina Anamaria Maricescu and Oana Udrescu
MA Students, MTTLC, Bucharest University