Via a company in Cluj called Concordia, the Magyar holding Futureal is already selling the villas placed on the surface of the Baneasa Zoo, Bucharest. The Futo familly grabbed the "Parcul Privighetorilor" Restaurant with help from Gabor Varga, a member of the UDMR (Democrat Union of Magyars in Romania) and a former head of the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trade Marks. And the ex candy traders want to develop their business on animals' land too. Attila Korodi, Romania's environment minister who announced the closing of the Zoo in Bucharest last Tuesday, is claiming that he has got nothing to do with the Magyar company. Still the minister, himself a member of the UDMR, admits that there is pressure from real estate investors targeting the Zoo. Razvan Murgeanu, a vice mayor of Bucharest, says in his turn: "Those guys are on us. We won't surrender to this dirthy blackmail by these companies. We are going to appeal to court against the minister's decision." But when faced with press reports, minister Korodi is taking a step back, telling he has never said he will close down the Zoo. The UDMR minister argues: "Why should it close, since there is authoritzation till 2010? This is out of question. We don't even want it. But they have to make investments." While in Cannes, Adriean Videanu, a general mayor of Bucharest, claimed the same, still admitting he had no idea about the environment minister's decision. "As long as I am a mayor, it won't close", said the Democrat-Liberal mayor whose mandate is over this summer. (...) (G.T., M.G.)