"Bulldog" Blaga gets boot over police strikes

"Băsescu puts together a new government,” reports Gândul the day after the cabinet reshuffle that cost the interior minister his head. Vasile “The Bulldog” Blaga resigned after president Traian Băsescu asked for “immediate action” to be taken against the 6,000-odd police officers who had defied the ban on demonstrating in uniform. Some are even alleged to have fired their service guns during the protests that have paralysed Bucharest since 20 September. The demonstrators are up in arms about the cutbacks demanded by the International Monetary Fund supposed to put the country’s finances back on an even keel. The Romanian daily regrets, however, that the chiefs of the national gendarmerie and of the police force, “who proved incapable of controlling the military structures they lead,” got to keep their jobs.