The government announced in a press release that it will not modify the legislation so that to backtrack on the decision of canceling the payment of revolutionists’ allowances. “Revolutionists, too, must understand that there are no alternatives now,” PM Emil Boc stated yesterday.
At the end of last year, authorities decided to stop paying allowances to the participants in the 1989 Revolution, starting with 2012. The media presented the provisions of a protocol recently signed by representatives of PDL and revolutionists, through which Finance Minister Gheorghe Ialomitianu and the state secretary for Revolutionists, George Costin promised to identify solutions to keep paying the money, without affecting the budget allotted for this year. The protocol however makes no reference to a possible intervention by the government, and only mentions that the representatives of revolutionists will present to the PDL group in the Chamber of Deputies their amendments to the Gratitude Law – the document that regulates the rights and benefits of revolutionists. The protocol was signed on January 20 by Ioan Oltean and Mircea Toader, on behalf of PDL, George Costin – the state secretary in charge with the Problems of Revolutionists, and Teodor Maries, Niculae Banutoiu and Victor Grigorescu representing the associations of revolutionists. Prior to signing the protocol, the ‘21 Decembrie 1989’ Association announced protests on January 23-27, at the PDL headquarters of Aleea Modrogan.
