European Social Democrats meet in Bucharest
A meeting of European Social Democrats takes place in Bucharest. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu is attending the event at the Palace of Parliament, along with leaders of other social democratic parties from Spain and Germany. This year’s European elections will be about principles, defending the values of the rule of law, but first and foremost about the economy, said Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu. He added that the economy will be the engine for raising living standards, recalling that Germany had some difficulties last year and fell into recession. „We managed in Romania, through political stability, to avoid this. We also had to take measures in a short period. I believe that through an open dialogue with Romanian business people and citizens we have found the best solutions for this period. We are the second European country in terms of absorption of the previous financial year. We had 96% absorption. At this moment, Europe needs mainly social democracy”, said Marcel Ciolacu. Attending the event, the leader of the S&D parliamentary group in the European Parliament, Iratxe García, drew attention to extremism, a danger to democracy in Europe.
PSD and PNL leaders meet again to decide whether this year’s elections will be merged
Leaders of Romania’s Social Democratic Party (PSD) and National Liberal Party (PNL) are meeting again on Wednesday to decide whether or not to merge this year’s elections, after talks so far failed to reach a consensus. According to public reports, the Liberals want the local elections to be held in the summer together with the European parliamentary elections, while the Social Democrats want the parliamentary elections to be combined with the second round of the presidential elections in the autumn. „There are even rumours of joint PSD-PNL lists for the Europarliamentary elections, but a decision must be taken at political level. I don’t think we can be on joint lists because we belong to two totally different political families”, said the Minister for Investment and European Projects, Social Democrat Adrian Câciu. From the opposition, the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) supports respect for the law and the decisions of the Constitutional Court. „We took a very vehement stance, because there are three decisions of the Constitutional Court that say very clearly that they can only be merged with the referendum, not with each other,” said MP Ringo Dămureanu. The Union Save Romania (USR) is also ready for any scenario, but announces that it will appeal to the Constitutional Court the legislation on the merger of elections.
Romanian Social Welfare and Child Protection workers demand better wages
Dozens of employees of the Social Welfare and Child Protection agency protested on Tuesday in front of the Ministry of Labour in Bucharest, unhappy with their incomes. They say that the 5% increase in the basic salary in January has led to the loss of tax benefits and ultimately, for most of them, to a reduction in net income of up to 60 lei. For the others, the increase was up to 80 lei. „Seniority is no longer taken into account. They threw dust into our eyes with 5%, which in fact only increased the tariff salary, they eliminated our reductions and we got wages 30-40 lei less than we were getting in December”, said one protester. According to the official figures, 70% of social assistance workers are on minimum wage. In addition, vacancies are being abolished and no new jobs are being taken on, leaving a 40% staff shortage. „If their demands are not met, social assistance workers will go on general strike,” said Monica Oprea, first vice-president of the National Trade Union Federation „Pro Asist”.
Magda Baciu
