Magistrates’ pensions spark tensions in the government
The atmosphere on the Romanian political scene is heating up again.
Bogdan Matei, 23.10.2025, 13:50
For foreign political commentators, the four-party government coalition in Bucharest, declared pro-Western, is, presumably, functional. It brings together only parties that belong to the so-called centrist political currents on the continent, which dominate the European Parliament and which have representatives in the European Commission. PSD is affiliated with the socialists, PNL and UDMR with the populists, and USR is with the Renew liberals.
For local political commentators, however, it is rather a coalition against nature. PNL and PSD have been, with few exceptions, sworn enemies since the dawn of Romanian post-communist democracy. USR has vehemently contested the policies of the social democrats and liberals. UDMR has sometimes associated itself with the right, sometimes with the left, just to be part of the benefits of governance.
However, there are tensions in the coalition again, after the Constitutional Court admitted the complaint filed by the High Court of Cassation of Justice in connection with the law on magistrates’ pensions, for which the Government had taken responsibility in Parliament, and established that the normative act is unconstitutional. According to the High Court, the law violates 37 binding decisions of the Constitutional Court and numerous fundamental principles of the rule of law.
Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan had argued that Romanian magistrates retire at 48-49 years of age and that an average pension in the magistracy exceeds 24,000 lei (the equivalent of about 4,800 euros). Numerous pensions reach 35,000 – 40,000 lei, especially for magistrates who have also held management positions. The fact is perceived as scandalous in a society where the average pension is equivalent to about 500 euros, money for which an ordinary person works for 35-40 years. “Through the reform we are proposing, there will be a transitional period of 10 years, at the end of which the retirement of magistrates will be at 65 years, the standard retirement age in Romania”, prime minister had said. In addition, he had announced the capping of the amount of a magistrate’s pension from 100% to 70% of the net income for the last month at work, that is, 14-15,000 lei.
After the Constitutional Court’s decision, all the ruling parties announced their dismay. The leaders of the USR, Dominic Fritz, and the UDMR, Kelemen Hunor, proposed, rather timidly, the organization of a referendum to eliminate special pensions, while mutual attacks started between the social democrats and the liberals again. The PSD announces that it will draft another bill on its own for the Court to approve, while its interim leader, Sorin Grindeanu, says that Ilie Bolojan could go home. It is hypocritical for the PSD to claim responsibility for a reform that its own people are undermining, the liberal Raluca Turcan says, referring to the Minister of Justice, Radu Marinescu, supported by the Social Democrats. Elsewhere across the country, local branches of the two parties issue communiqués in which which they criticise their partners. Almost amused, the press writes that tensions will undoubtedly increase when the ruling parties compete again, on December 7, in the elections for the position of mayor of Bucharest, which became vacant after the former mayor, Nicușor Dan, was elected head of state. (EE)
