Talks on Government Responsibility

The Romanian Government assumes responsibility for a legislative package meant to rebalance the budget, while the opposition threatens with no-confidence motions

Ştefan Stoica, 05.09.2023, 13:50

The autumn session of the Romanian Parliament is expected to be pretty busy. On the one hand, there are many issues left unsolved, such as the reform of the special pension system, the wage law and the law on state pensions. On the other hand, the road tragedies reported lately have pushed the legislative agenda into toughening penalties for crimes committed under the influence of alcohol and drugs. From a political point of view, the most awaited moment in Parliament is, however, that of the Government assuming responsibility for the measures aimed at reducing the budget deficit.

Less than two weeks have passed since the prime minister and Social-Democratic leader Marcel Ciolacu announced his intention to resort to this procedure, somewhat surprising his Liberal partners. On Monday, the matter was discussed in the coalition, and the Liberal Party agreed to the assumption of responsibility, without the actual measures being decided at the level of details, but only in principle. Practically, the Government will assume responsibility before Parliament for a legislative package that will mainly include fiscal measures. Marcel Ciolacu:

„We talked about the package that will be included in a single law and that will cover the fight against evasion, the reforms in the local administration, and the measures aimed to ensure a smaller budget deficit than last year”.

Liberal leader Nicolae Ciucă agrees with measures to balance the budget:

„The fundamental elements are three: reduction of budget expenditures, reduction of fiscal evasion and fiscal measures. The National Liberal Party supports the maintenance of the flat tax.”

The Liberals do not agree with possible measures that would, they say, have negative effects on the business environment, such as increasing the tax on dividends or reducing the ceiling for SMEs.

From different barricades, the main opposition parties criticize the Executives intention to assume responsibility and threaten with motions of no-confidence. The leader of the opposition Save Romania Union, Cătălin Drula, denounces any attempt by the Government to increase taxes. Cătălin Drula:

„Our main priority will be to fight against the abusive increase in taxes that the Social Democratic Party and its trailer, the Liberal Party, want to operate.”

The ultranationalists from the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), in turn, oppose the increase in the VAT. Here is the party leader George Simion:

„We must oppose the VAT increase in any form. We must insist that the problem is not the micro-enterprises, but the large enterprises that do not pay profit tax and do not pay their taxes correctly”.

The Government assuming responsibility for a legislative bill is the fastest way to promote it, because it eliminates the time that the debates would have required, but also the most risky, because the favorable vote on a possible motion of no-confidence tabled by the opposition triggers the fall of the Cabinet. (MI)