Parliament as a refugee for heat victims

Eleven people have died over the past few days in Romania owing to temperatures soaring above 40 degrees. British political expert Tom Gallagher makes an unusual suggestion: over the next few weeks Bucharest's pensioners should be housed in the parliamentary buildings, which are fitted out with air conditioning. "This way, members of parliament can prove they have understood what elected representatives really are: persons who are at the service of the people when they're suddenly confronted with danger. ... The heat wave proves once again that the state is in need of sweeping reforms or it will remain a club for incompetents which fails to react to crises no matter what tragedies are unfolding behind the scenes. The state institutions are primarily occupied with their own privileges and creating a series of regulations that will guarantee the continuation of their own Kafkaesque existence. It's not only the pensioners who are suffering as a result."

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