Labour Minister Rovana Plumb stated on Saturday evening on B1TV that the Social Democratic Party (PSD) is going through a difficult period but that Victor Ponta will not leave PSD’s leadership team because he is Premier and the party’s Vice President.
“PSD is going through a difficult period, it’s natural and normal for there to be preoccupation, concern, but we went through these difficult moments many times before and every time our answer was unity and solidarity.”
Ponta knows best what he has to do, he is not leaving PSD’s leadership team
“Ponta knows best what he has to do, he is not leaving PSD’s leadership team. As Premier and the party’s Vice President he is taking part in all our political meetings,” Rovana Plumb said.
On the other hand, political analyst Alina Mungiu-Pippidi considers that Premier Victor Ponta has become a target for those who want him out of the Government but also out of PSD, however the real battle is the one with the party’s barons.
“I wonder whether those who saw what happened this week congratulated themselves for the strategy we have seen since February, namely that of personalizing the fight with PSD’s criminals in the person of Premier Ponta. The party’s support base of barons is at the foundation and they are the ones influencing the leaders and asking the leaders to have a certain agenda,” the political analyst explained.
“The risk there is that every time a leader that talks the Western language a bit and is a bit sensitive to external pressures, such as Mircea Geoana and Ponta, manages to end up there, that leader will in the end be removed,” the political analyst said.
“What we are already seeing within PSD is that a step back is taken every time. The only activity I have seen a bit articulated in the press and by opposition parties: the fight against Victor Ponta,” Alina Mungiu-Pippidi explained.
“The Fiscal Code is good, but its implementation by the Ponta Gov’t is not desired”
The Fiscal Code is good, has no problems, but its implementation by the Ponta Government is not desired, Labour Minister Rovana Plumb stated on B1TV.
“As long as the statements point out that it is a good Fiscal Code, but we still have to clarify certain measures, I understand that the Fiscal Code is good, so we do not really have problems, but why should it be implemented by another Government and not by us? Basically it’s stalling! I believe the Fiscal Code is the most important political goal of the last 11 years. I believe the desire is to play this politically,” the Labour Minister stated.
Rovana Plumb pointed out that in their talks with the representatives of the IMF and of the European Commission the members of Government were assured that Romania has sustainable economic growth.
“When should we do it if not now when Romania registers economic growth, has budget surplus, and only we and Germany currently register budget surplus in the EU? The Fiscal Code is an instrument that aids development,” the Labour Minister added.
Amending the budget: “Romania affords it”
Labour Minister Rovana Plumb also stated during the same talk-show on B1TV that the salaries of 900,000 public sector employees will grow by 70 per cent because Romania affords it.
The salary hike will be made in three stages. The first will take place in December this year, while the last should be finalized in 2017. The Government will discuss on Tuesday the amending of the budget.
“The salary law has a budget impact that we thought out in order for Romania to be able to bear it within 3 years’ time. The first salary hike stage should take place in 2015, starting in December, the second in 2016 and the final one in 2017. We are talking about 1,200,000 public sector employees for whom an equitable salary law will have an impact on 1,200,000 families, because there is a family behind every public sector employee,” the Labour Minister stated.
“We are talking about an average growth of 71 per cent for 900,000 public sector employees,” Plumb said, explaining that “in three years’ time” Romania can afford such a budget hike.
In what concerns the salaries of high officials, they will be hiked starting next month. Premier Victor Ponta announced on Tuesday that he will take “a good political decision” and will hike the salary of President Klaus Iohannis.
In fact, the Labour Minister herself recently stated that the ordinance for the hiking of the salaries of high officials could come into force on August 1, considering the “small budget impact of less than RON 600,000.”
“Today the salaries of dignitaries in Romania have nothing to do with the responsibilities of the positions held, with the work done,” Rovana Plumb explained.
