Even the most important Romanian parties are not immune to the economic crisis. PSD is the first party that announced a restructuring of its personnel, starting with the employees of central party structures. As it has to deal with some outstanding debts, PSD laid off 80 employees all over the country. “Just names on the payroll. I have never seen 63 of them,” said PSD leader Victor Ponta, quoted by Gandul. According to the source, 17 people were actually fired. Asked about how they cope with the economic downturn, the leaders of Social-Democratic local branches said they do whatever they can to avoid laying off employees.