Premium
The pawning of the country's finances must stop, Romania must be saved from the "Citu virus", and the Finance Minister must go home, reads the simple motion tabled on Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies' plenum by the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
"More harmful than the effects of the pandemic, more contagious than the coronavirus and more lethal than the COVID-19 disease, the 'Citu virus' has almost completely destroyed the national economy. After almost two months of state of emergency, after countless stutters, deferrals and adjustments of regulatory acts, Finance Minister Florin Vasile Citu proved incapable of coming up with effective support measures for the economy. Opinion polls show that 70 percent of the population believe that Romania could have avoided the coronavirus pandemic's negative effects on the economy, had the Finance Ministry taken in due time efficient measures to support businesses. Put simply, 70 percent of the Romanians consider Minister Citu to be a disaster for the economy! What a curse on this country - having the most disastrous Finance Minister in Romania's history steer the economy during this most difficult time," the simple motion reads.
The Social Democrats also mention that in the 6 months of Liberal government and in the more than 50 days since the declaration of the state of emergency, no measures have been taken to "avoid disaster".
"No measures to protect the purchasing power, to maintain the living standards. No active measures to economically stimulate Romanian entrepreneurship. No economic recovery plan - Minister Citu tells us that he is still working on it. No economic and financial stimulus package. No vision of a fiscal budget policy to direct financial resources to the economy through active measures. No Romanian could actually get a loan forbearance without being charged interest on interest, in this regard the Finance Minister has acted like a usurer. No Romanian has been able to postpone and reschedule their utility bills, because Mr. Citu's party was ordered to challenge the PSD law in the Constitutional Court. No job protection measure - the only such move was a passive one, putting people on a furlough they haven't been paid for even one month and a half into the state of emergency. And now we learn that the emergency condition will end after May 15. No SME has received working capital, because the regulatory acts have been so much delayed, and the SME Invest platform went down right on the first day of operation," the document goes on.
The initiators of the simple motion add that the PNL government tells people to stay at home to avoid the pandemic, but it occurs to no one from the government or the Finance Ministry that two thirds of Romanians have no savings at all, that they will stay home "and will die in their homes, but not from coronavirus, but from poverty."
The Social Democrats also maintain that "the Finance Minister's only noteworthy achievement is the hiring of his friends on the F.C.B. principle - favoritism, cronyism, bias - for offensive salaries, on the country's money, on the money of the citizens impoverished by the pandemic."
