The leaders of the ruling coalition met on Tuesday morning at the Government headquarters, among the main topics being the renegotiation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), the government rotation that would take place at the end of this month, according to the protocol signed a year and a half ago, but also the reduction of public expenses and overtaxation of incomes.
The leaders of the three ruling parties, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă (PNL), PSD president Marcel Ciolacu and UDMR leader Kelemen Hunor convened for talks at the Victoria Palace, the Gov’t HQs. The most important event of this month is the change of the Prime Minister of the PNL with that of the PSD, according to the agreement initialed by the two parties when the governing coalition was formed.
PSD chairman, Marcel Ciolacu, declared that, until June 1, he is convinced that the government rotation will take place and that he will become prime minister. Ciolacu warned that it is not good to talk about the change of some ministers a month before, because it would block the activity in the concerned ministries. He also announced that he would like Mihai Tudose as a minister and praised Sorin Grindeanu, “one of the most efficient ministers of the current Government”.
The negotiations between PSD and PNL for the government circular are expected to kick off at the end of this week, political sources told Digi24.ro. Depending on these discussions, it will be determined whether the Coalition protocol will be respected or whether it will be modified, with some ministries keeping their current portfolio holders.
The Social Democrats want to keep the Transport portfolio, where Sorin Grindeanu would remain minister. In exchange, the PSD could give up the Ministry of Justice, which should have passed from the PNL to the PSD. At the same time, the liberals could keep Marcel Boloș at the Ministry of Investments and European Projects. In any scenario, PNL will also take over the Ministry of Finance from PSD.
However, PNL sources claim that no agreement has been reached regarding the modification of the Coalition’s protocol. Alina Gorghiu, the interim president of the Senate, said on Tuesday about the changes in the Executive after the rotation of the prime ministers from the coalition, that she does not want to insist on the rotation, showing that it will occur when the coalition decides. Gorghiu also said that the names of the ministers are unimportant for her and specified that the PNL has a decision to go into coalition with the proposal to respect the protocol.
The Liberals will convene around May 10 in a meeting of the National Political Bureau, for an evaluation of the heads of agencies, state secretaries and ministers and to take a mandate with which they will go in coalition for the government rotation. The Liberals hope that the rotation of prime ministers will be completed by the end of May, the beginning of June. Currently, the mandate of the liberals is to preserve the protocol signed when the coalition was formed, but there is also flexibility for a negotiation regarding the ministries. Also, during the rotation, it is possible that the number of ministries will decrease.
The ordinance for the reduction of budget expenses and the overtaxation of incomes over 25,000 lei
Another topic that must be divided in the coalition is related to the reduction of budget expenses. The Social Democrats (PSD) insist on the introduction of the progressive tax and talks about the overtaxing of incomes that exceed the salary of the President of Romania.
Liberal Prime Minister Ciucă declared on Wednesday, about the tax on incomes that exceed the president’s salary, that it is only applied to the state, and the percentage is 16%, because it also works as a tax on the finance law. The Head of the Executive also said that this analysis is being done at the level of the Ministry of Finance and that the decision will take into account the data presented and showed that nothing is nailed down at this moment.
The PSD Chair, Marcel Ciolacu, stated on Monday evening that, until the completion of the reforms aimed at the new salary law in the budgetary sector and special pensions, state employment must be resolved, even if he claims that “it does not mean that Romania has macroeconomic problems” .