Minister takes aim at Romanians living abroad
Romania's Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici has suggested that Romanian citizens should only be given working permits in other EU countries for a maximum of five years. After that they should either move on or come home, he said. After a wave of indignation in reaction to this proposal, he toned down his views via Facebook. Romania's media are nonetheless indignant.
Back to gathering corn and potatoes?
The business paper Ziarul Financiar is appalled by Teodorovici's proposal:
“The communists took the view that the value of work was to be determined on the basis of physical exertion. It doesn't bode well for Romania that a minister is now proposing a return to the origins of communism. In other words: comrades, go back to gathering corn and potatoes, the land needs you! It doesn't need six percent of the gross domestic product for education, competence, clean kindergartens, good teachers, roads without potholes and cracks. No, Romania need prisons. This is what Eugen Teodorovici is basically saying.”
Lack of hope is causing exodus
Romania's political leadership should examine its own shortcomings regarding the problem of mass emigration, G4 Media believes:
“Shortage of labour has become an acute problem in Romania since four million citizens decided to leave the country. ... But to find solutions [for stopping emigration] we must first identify the causes. And they are right under the ruling PSD party's nose: ... The lack of equal opportunities, inadequate access to education and healthcare, the impunity of those in power and generalised corruption. All these things drive honest and hard-working people crazy. Then there's the old-boy networks, the PSD's cronyism in administrative bodies and laws that are changed overnight.”