Unfortunately, I’m going to have to largely skip over an important issue to discuss an even more important issue. Today I set out to write a follow-up article about the Bunicuta de Aur, our new Finance Minister Ioana Petrescu, who gave a lengthy on camera interview with the media outlet Adevarul yesterday. During the interview, she revealed that the upcoming increase of 7 eurocents (~40 … Continue reading A Tangled Web
If you’ve been with me for a long time, you’ll know that as far back as three years ago I was writing about how much I appreciate Romania’s democratic tradition of giving ample time and space for the public to debate the important issues of the day. Last week, I was watching such a program, a 78-minute interview with Aurelia Cristea, a local politician who … Continue reading The State of the Press
I still have no idea what the Szeklers mean when they want autonomy but, as I said in my article, the biggest problem in Romania is that literally everything is decided in Bucharest. A case in point – yesterday President Basescu signed into law a bill that will increase the salaries of mayors, deputy mayors and members of the local city councils throughout Romania. The … Continue reading Government cheese
If Laszlo Tokes had had the decency to die back in 1989, now he’d be a martyr to the revolution, a hero to all of Romania. Unfortunately, he’s still alive and continues to be the burr under this country’s saddle, just like he was back in 1989 when his stubborn refusal to leave Timisoara helped kick off the revolution. Everything was great back when he … Continue reading Barátok és ellenségek
I nearly fell out of my chair yesterday evening when I saw on Czech television that the parliament was considering amending its lustration laws after Marta Semelova, a member of the Communist party, had introduced an amendment to that effect. The good news is that it looks highly doubtful that her measure will be adopted by the parliament but it still gave me a bit … Continue reading An Unclean Spirit
All Things Romania 