During the Social-Democratic
\nGovernment’s term in office, the Liberals in opposition advanced a bill to
\ndouble children’s allowances. Subsequently, the Social-Democrats were removed
\nfrom office, not without doubling these allowances beforehand. This highly
\npopulist measure risks destabilizing an already overburdened budget, based on a
\ndeficit of 3%, the maximum accepted at EU level. Ludovic Orban’s Cabinet
\nannounced that, although ratified by the president, the law doubling children’s
\nallowances will take effect in July at the earliest, with the first budget
\nadjustment. Labor Minister Violeta Alexandru:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Let’s be very clear – we
\ncompletely understand the need to double children’s allowances. Still, since
\nthe law was passed after we had finalized the budget for 2020, we need to find
\nthe resources that can cover this increase, which is unsustainable right now.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Social-Democrats have accused
\nthe Liberal Government of irresponsibility and lack of professionalism. In an
\nattempt to boost their image in an election year, the Social-Democrats claim
\none solution to make more funds available for the doubling of children’s
\nallowances would be to repeal the law on special pensions. Interim
\nSocial-Democrat leader and Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marcel Ciolacu said
\nParliament would convene in an extraordinary sitting at the end of January to
\ndebate the draft law on repealing special pensions, with the exception of
\nmilitary and law enforcement. All political parties are now questioning special
\npensions benefiting certain categories of public employees, mainly magistrates,
\nwhich are outrageously high compared to normal pension, considering they shun
\nthe principle of fair contribution. The same parties however introduced the
\nspecial pensions, whenever international rules and regulations so demanded or
\nthe measure would boost their election scores. Another bone of contention
\nbetween power and opposition right now revolves over the Liberals’ intention to
\nmodify the election law, thus reintroducing the organization of local elections
\nin two separate rounds. Marcel Ciolacu said he would send a letter to European
\nbodies informing them of the Liberals’ intention to amend the election legislation
\nmonths before the local elections are scheduled to take place, which goes against
\nrecommendations. The Social-Democrats believe such an undertaking would affect
\ncredibility in Romanian democracy and the rule of law. The Social-Democrats said
\nthey would file a no-confidence motion if the Government will assume
\nresponsibility in Parliament over the modified election law. Social-Democrat
\nleader Marcel Ciolacu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
You have no right whatsoever in a
\ndemocratic and European state to modify the election law two or three months
\nbefore the election is due. This has never happened in the history of Romania
\nand we hope it won’t happen now either. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A potential demise of the Orban
\nCabinet would trigger early elections, a scenario that favors the Liberals and
\nless so the Social-Democrats, which are still trying to recover from the
\nrepeated blows they were dealt in 2019. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The right-wing Government and the left-wing opposition have engaged in heated debates in recent weeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":81996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[35326,35254,36660,39859,29669],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-84327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-childrens-allowances","tag-liberal-government","tag-marcel-ciolacu","tag-social-democrat-opposition","tag-special-pensions"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n