The speech held by president Traian Basescu on Wednesday shocked the entire press with its lack of violence. Used to hear rough expressions, journalists and politicians alike are still not sure how to react - to consider this cool and balanced speech as the new image of the president, or to see it only as a PR stunt before the elections.
"Basescu works out for the future presidential elections" is the title in Evenimentul Zilei, which notes that the president quit his usual available-for-conflict attitude. "Basescu laid the first brick for the presidential campaign in 2009 (...) suggesting that he will not involve in the parliamentarian elections this year", the newspaper reads,
"Basescu slapped the Government with technical arguments" is the title in Gandul, while Cotidianul has an even more expressive headline: "Basescu sweetened the Apocalypse on the road to Parliament". According to Cotidianul, the president gave up the first speech draft, which was a lot more violent and included references to nominated ministers and politicians.
On the other hand, same Cotidianul informs on the latest opinion poll, in which Basescu leads by far, being the first choice for president for 60% of the populace. His supporting party, Democrat-Liberals also lead, with 37%. Basescu is followed in the poll by Social-Democrat leader Mircea Geoana, Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu (6% each), far-right leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor and New Generation Party president Gigi Becali (5% each). Democrat-Liberals are followed by Social-Democrats (28%), Liberals (17%), far-right Great Romania and the Hungarian Democrats (5% each).
Meanwhile, living in Romania is as tough as always. According to the latest studies, Romanians suffer a huge amount of surgical interventions every year and still have one of the lowest life expectancy levels. The number of surgic
