Too costly: rubbish war in Bucharest
For months, bags of rubbish have been piling up in the centre of Bucharest because Clotilde Armand, mayor of the city's Sector 1, is in a clinch with the sanitary services company Romprest. She says that the costs for rubbish disposal - fixed before her term in office - are five times higher than in other cities and taking up a third of the sector's budget. She wants a new contract and has temporarily suspended payments to the company.
Stockholm syndrome
Newsweek România is surprised at how many citizens are complaining about the treatment of the sanitary services company when it has been ripping them off for years:
“Until proven otherwise, this is about reducing an enormously high expenditure of public money. The fight is about the residents of the first district having to pay less. Yet I have read an incredible number of comments from people condemning Clotilde Armand for her action against Romprest. It's like a kidnapped person insulting those who want to rescue her, because after all, the kidnapper who held her captive for 25 years provided her with a bed and hot soup every day.”
Rough tactics not always helpful
Spotmedia disagrees with Armand's tactics:
“The 'crowbar' method is usually very successful and is good for popularity. We're particularly fond of Amazonians who brutally dispose of their enemies - commonly referred to as the Mafia. This is also understandable, given the constant humiliations and frustrations that the citizens are made to endure. They feel appeased by it. But sometimes what's needed is not a crowbar but a scalpel, not brash talk but silent tactics.”